On Friday, Republican Gov. Rick Perry of Texas took to the op-ed pages of The Washington Post to accuse GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky of "ignoring" the chaos that has engulfed Iraq, accusing him of standing for "inaction."

Perry's shot across the bow is particularly striking for two reasons. For one, it reinforces his burning desire to seek the presidency again, as he used the critique of Paul to burnish his own foreign policy chops even as he soaked up national headlines regarding his anger with President Barack Obama over the border crisis.

[READ: Chris Christie and Rand Paul's Consistency in New Hampshire]

But perhaps more significantly, it demonstrates the strides Paul has made to become a leading voice in his party and the marginal front-runner for the 2016 nomination, as noted in U.S. News' rankings on The Chase.

It was just three years ago that Perry burst onto the national scene as an instant front-runner himself, with the Paul position on foreign policy seen as an untenable one in a national GOP primary. Paul's noninterventionist approach on conflicts abroad may still cause him hurdles, but he's now settled into a stronger position than Perry within the party. If Paul was just a gadfly, Perry would see no reason to fire at him.

On substance, Perry's overarching argument is one that will be welcomed by the more hawkish elements of the GOP. But Perry outlines a problem without prescribing answers to the biggest questions himself.

Perry accuses Paul of "drawing his own red line along the water's edge, creating a giant moat where superpowers can retire from the world."

But just two paragraphs later, he acknowledges that "there are no good options in Iraq or Syria."

Glaringly, Perry leaves some of the toughest quandaries about Iraq – like whether and when the U.S. should consider placing any amount of troops back into the country – unanswered. His aim here seems to score a quick political point by drawing Paul into a back-and-forth, something the Kentucky freshman hasn't been prone to shy away from.

Responding in his own op-ed in Politico Monday, Paul uses Perry's own words against him to show the impotency of the governor's attack.

"Perry says there are no good options. I’ve said the same thing. President Obama has said the same thing. So what are Perry’s solutions and why does he think they are so bold and different from anyone else’s?" Paul writes.

[ALSO: Rand Paul: Troops in Iraq Would Be a Mistake]

He goes on to note his openness to targeted airstrikes against Islamic radicals, the same position Perry holds.

Perry hasn't explicitly called for troops in this case, but Paul's opposition research digs up a quote from the 2012 presidential race showing the governor's willingness to redeploy soldiers.

