Republican Sen. Rand Paul Thursday warned that the United States is arming its enemies and pushed efforts to stop military sales to Qatar and Bahrain.
“They don’t like us,” Paul said on the Senate floor. “It is insulting, and it is insane, and it needs to stop,” he added.
Paul’s efforts won solid support, but in the end, both measures failed to pass.
The senator used the votes to draw new attention to the U.S. arming of Saudi Arabia and reports that arms sent to the Middle East have ended up in the hands of terror groups and U.S enemies.
Senator Rand Paul is always leading to put AMERICA FIRST!
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) June 13, 2019
In a floor speech and in an op-ed published by Fox, the senator said that the administration is making a mistake in being so willing to sell arms in the Middle East.
“Dreamers often longingly speak of a peace plan for the Middle East. Maybe we should consider a peace plan that doesn’t include dumping more arms into a region aflame in civil unrest, civil war, and anarchy,” said the senator.
He was especially critical of Saudi Arabia, saying that they spend more than Russia on arms and that the kingdom is a world military power that does not need U.S. help.
“Are the Saudis so weak that Iran will overrun them without additional U.S. weapons? Of course not. The Saudis now spend more on their military than Russia. The Saudis now have the third-largest military budget in the world,” he said.
He also highlighted reports that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bahrain have attacked groups the U.S. supports.
“The facts are not contested. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bahrain have allowed U.S. arms to be funneled to radical Islamist groups throughout the Middle East. Dumping more weapons into the Middle East won’t get us any closer to peace,” he said.
