Rand Paul: ‘I Don’t Blame Obama’ for Crisis in Iraq
NBC News has just released a preview of David Gregory’s interview with Rand Paul, set to air on this Sunday’s Meet The Press, in which the Republican senator responds directly to criticism President Barack Obama has received from former Vice President Dick Cheney and others on Iraq. After listening to what Cheney had to say, Paul remarked, “I think the same questions could be asked of those who supported the Iraq War.”
In his Wall Street Journal op-ed this week, Cheney, along with his daughter, wrote, “Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many” and criticized President Obama for trying to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Do you think Dick Cheney is a credible critic of this president?” Gregory asked Paul.
“I think the same questions could be asked of those who supported the Iraq War,” Paul answered. “You know, were they right in their predictions? Were there weapons of mass destruction there? That’s what the war was sold on. Was democracy easily achievable? Was the war won in 2005, when many of these people said it was won? They didn’t really, I think, understand the civil war that would break out.”
He went on to say he doesn’t “blame” Obama for the current crisis in Iraq. “And what’s going on now — I don’t blame on President Obama,” he said. “Has he really got the solution? Maybe there is no solution. But I do blame the Iraq War on the chaos that is in the Middle East. I also blame those who are for the Iraq War for emboldening Iran. These are the same people now who are petrified of what Iran may become, and I understand some of their worry.”
When Gregory suggested Paul does not consider himself to be a “Dick Cheney Republican” when it comes to foreign policy, the senator did not disagree.
“What I would say is that the war emboldened Iran,” he said. “Iran is much more of a threat because of the Iraq War than they were before — before there was a standoff between Sunnis and Shiites. Now there is Iranian hegemony throughout the region.”
Watch video below, via NBC:
[Photo via screengrab]
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