In an interview with CNN, Senator Rand Paul questioned why the United States has a continued presence in Afghanistan.
Wolf Blitzer asked for his thoughts on the American bombing of a Doctors Without Border hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan that killed 22 people, and Paul thought it raised concerns over American military action overseas.
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“I think it goes to a bigger question and this is a question that President Obama should have to answer: Why are we still at war in Afghanistan? What is the U.S. objective? What’s the U.S. mission? And why are we bombing anybody?” Paul asked.
“Tragic accidents will happen when you’re involved with war, but I don’t see why we’re still involved in Afghanistan,” he continued.
Paul advocates for a non-interventionist policy to curtail foreign wars and American involvement in places such as Libya and Syria. “We shouldn’t be in perpetual war all around the globe,” Paul said.
His limiting views on war put him at odds with candidates such as Marco Rubio, a candidate prominent for his neo-conservative foreign policy that promotes active involvement overseas to protect American interests.
Doctors Without Borders has questioned the military explanation for the airstrike, which has changed multiple times since the preliminary explanation.
Paul stated that, “I don’t mind an outside international investigation,” in addition to American, NATO, and Afghan investigations–which Dr. Joanne Liu, the president of Doctors Without Borders, called for on Wednesday.
The Department of Defense counts 2,355 American casualties from the war in Afghanistan. A number of high-profile incidents have occurred where American airstrikes have killed dozens of Afghan civilians, and the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs counts 26,000 Afghan civilians who “have died violent deaths as a result of the war” since 2001.
