Rand Paul's effort to attract hawkish supporters in the Republican primaries now has him calling on Washington to literally remap the Middle East:

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, likely 2016 GOP presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) staked out a bold position on a foreign policy matter—pushing to arm Kurdish fighters against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) even more than the U.S. has already done, but also calling for the creation of a new nation of Kurdistan. "Part of the problem is the Kurds aren't getting enough arms," Paul said. "The Kurds are the best fighters. The arms are going through Baghdad to get to the Kurds and they're being siphoned off and they're not getting what they need. I think any arms coming from us or coming from any European countries ought to go directly to the Kurds. They seem to be the most effective and most determined fighters." In addition, Paul called for giving the Kurds their own country for them to defend against radical Islamists. "But I would go one step further: I would draw new lines for Kurdistan and I would promise them a country," Paul said.

Note that Paul didn't merely say that if the Kurds succeed in carving out a territory, the U.S. should recognize it. He said America should actively involve itself in launching the state and establishing its borders.

Eugene McCarthy once wisecracked that you can blame most of the world's problems on British mapmakers, who casually carved countries out of their dying empire without regard for whether the boundaries they were drawing made much sense. I can't say I have much faith that mapmakers based in Washington would do a more impressive job—and I have even less faith that it would be worth any ordinary American's while to get tangled up in the conflicts that would inevitably follow.