Rand Paul: Trump's Secretary of State Should Understand Iraq War Was A Disaster

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Published: 30 Nov, 2016
Updated: 17 Oct, 2022
1 min read

In a recent op-ed published on Rare.us, U.S. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) encouraged President-elect Donald Trump to not compromise in his pick for secretary of state and pick someone who shares his views on the Iraq War, regime change, and nation building.

Paul said that despite the mainstream media's obsession with when exactly Trump started to oppose the Iraq War, his message on foreign policy was consistent throughout his campaign and that message should carry over into his administration:

"Regardless of when Trump first opposed the Iraq War, he without question vocalized his opposition consistently throughout the campaign and drew clear conclusions that regime change often doesn’t make America safer, that nation-building is expensive and frequently doesn’t work, and that, in Syria, regime change is likely to make ISIS stronger. Clinton never got one iota of the lesson of the Iraq War, and those of us who want war to be the last resort are lucky that she will never be president.

[...]

Donald Trump needs a secretary of state who understands that we can’t build nations abroad and have enough money to rebuild our own nation. Both Trump’s foreign policy and domestic policy depend on him picking someone who has fully learned the historic lesson of the Iraq War: regime change and nation building don’t work and cost too much.

Read Sen. Paul's Full Op-Ed Here.

Photo Credit: Rich Koele / Shutterstock.com

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