Sen. Rand Paul on Wednesday fought on the air with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade over what the Kentucky Republican called an overly interventionist U.S. military policy.
Paul said he wants President Trump’s next ambassador to the United Nations to reflect Trump’s own position that the U.S. needs to stop using its military so frequently around the world.
“I’m of the opinion we need to have a strong national defense, we need to balance our budget, but we don’t need to be in everybody’s civil war,” Paul said. “And the president agrees with me.”
“Well, the only problem is when we leave Iraq, in comes ISIS,” Kilmeade replied. “If we leave Afghanistan, out comes al Qaeda, and then buildings start falling here, so you’ve got to be responsible.”
“The other half of that, Brian, though, is we went into… Iraq, toppled the regime there, and guess what?” Paul said. “It made Iran stronger. So really, we tipped the balance of power in favor of Iran when we went into Iraq, so we have to think of the unintended consequences of always intervening in everyone’s civil war.”
“Well, we don’t always intervene in everyone’s civil war,” Kilmeade said.
“Well, we’re involved in about seven civil wars right now, particularly the Yemen civil war,” Paul fired back.
Paul said it’s been a mistake to arm Saudi Arabia, which he said is making things worse in Yemen.
“That was a mistake,” Kilmeade said. “Should we give Yemen to Iran, would that be better?”
“No,” Paul said. “I think we should understand that the world’s a little more complicated than that, Brian. That there’s civil war there with many different factions in Yemen, and this isn’t Iran, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. There are many different factions …”
“You’re oversimplifying,” Brian said. “You’re oversimplifying, senator.”
“No, the Sunnis and the Shia have been at war with each other for 1,000 [years], they will be at war with each other for another 1,000 years. It doesn’t mean we always have to intercede,” Paul said.
The exchange ended with an eye roll from Kilmeade.
Paul is pushing the Senate to vote on his language that would block arms sales to Saudi Arabia because of the disappearance of a reporter, Jamal Khashoggi. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., has said he is looking to block arm sales to Saudi Arabia over that country’s backing of armed forces in Yemen.
