Anti-war Sen. Rand Paul Tuesday stepped up his support for President Trump’s decision to withdraw 50-100 military officials from Syrian hot spots and mocked the GOP “war caucus” for its mutiny cry over the move Trump promised in his 2016 campaign.
“I, for one, appreciate the president being consistent in his policy that the goal is to irradiate ISIS and the people who have criticized him have wanted a different goal, someone who will wait until Iran’s gone, someone who will wait until Russia’s gone, someone who’ll wait until Hell freezes over,” the Kentucky Republican said in a conference call with reporters.
“I just don’t think it has to be the U.S. obligation to try to figure each of the world’s problems out,” he added.
Trump announced his plan on Monday, drawing heat from Republicans and some conservatives who declared it an abandonment of friendly Kurdish troops fighting in Syria and who now face attack from Turkey, the U.S. NATO ally.
On Tuesday, the White House noted that the numbers of officials and troops involved are tiny. A fact sheet said, “President Trump is removing American troops from northern Syria to ensure that they are not put in harm’s way.” It added, “The decision to remove 50 to 100 American troops from northern Syria is intended to keep they from risk of injury, death, or capture during Turkish military operations.”
Turkey told the White House of its plan to conduct operations this weekend.
Paul said that the move reminded him of former President Ronald Reagan’s decision to withdraw a small group of troops from Beirut in 1984 after an October 1983 Marine barrack was attacked and 220 U.S. Marines were killed.
Trump’s decision, said Paul, was like Reagan deciding that “having a few hundred soldiers in the middle of a war is not necessarily a deterrent, but often a trip wire to a larger conflagration.”
He added, “I’m of the opinion to go big or go home and there’s no reason to be putting a couple dozen soldiers in the middle of oncoming armies.”
Reagan was also criticized.
Paul also ripped “the Cheney Family, the typical war caucus” for opposing the move. “This goes to the lunacy of the war caucus yelling and screaming over moving 50 soldiers,” he said, adding, “to leave 50 people in the middle of all this is lunacy.”
He is just a handful of Republicans who have publicly supported the president amid an onslaught from GOP leaders including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Trump pal Sen. Lindsay Graham.
Democrats have also been quiet, though many support troop withdrawals.
Paul suggested that supporting the president’s decision isn’t as important as attacking him over the Ukraine affair.
“Unfortunately, political politics or presidential campaign politics have kind of obscured their desire for realism in foreign policy,” he said.
