McCain: Paul’s ‘fortress America’ comes at ‘heavy price’

Sen. John McCain said Sunday that he wouldn’t take sides in the foreign policy debate between Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, but he cautioned that Paul’s approach of withdrawing American military power threatens global stability.

“Sen. Paul is part of a wing of the [Republican] party that’s been there ever since prior to World War I … and that is a withdrawal to fortress America,” the Republican senator from Arizona said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “The things we’re seeing in the world today, in greater turmoil than at any time in my lifetime, is a direct result of an absence of American leadership, and we are paying a very, very heavy price.”

On Friday, Perry criticized Paul in a Washington Post op-ed, saying Paul’s call to stay out of Iraq amid renewed violence “seems curiously blind” to the threats posed by militants in the region. Perry’s line of attack highlights a distinction between the two possible GOP presidential contenders that could remain an important issue going into the 2016 campaign.

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McCain, an advocate of an interventionist foreign policy, said President Barack Obama’s foreign policy has shown the dangers of withdrawing from world affairs.

“I believe that the president of the United States has shown, absent American leadership, what can happen in the world today,” McCain said. “America has an essential role in maintaining peace and stability throughout the world.”