By Rocco Artesian
Kentucky Senator and GOP presidential candidate Rand Paul isn’t the normal White house hopeful. A rare breed Libertarian, Paul wants to see cuts in military spending as he finds the current monetary allocations to be contradictory to conservative principles. Paul, an advocate to avoid war unless it’s absolutely necessary for American national security, is not arguing to completely eliminate military funding. He just wants it significantly decreased, and desires to have troops sent only to countries where he ISIS and other terrorist organizations pose threats to U.S. interests. He finds that Marco Rubio, a Republican presidential nominee rival, holds a different stance.
Paul said, “Currently, 31 factions in 16 countries pledge allegiance to ISIS. Were we ever to have a substantive debate over foreign policy, one might want to ask Mr. Rubio which countries he will send troops to—or maybe it’s a shorter list of which countries won’t he send troops to.”
The Kentucky Senator likens Rubio, a current Florida senator, to the Democrat leading presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. Paul asserts, “The Clinton/Rubio foreign policy calls for a no-fly zone over Syria in airspace in which Russia already flies — a recipe for confrontation. We shouldn’t be surprised since the Clinton/Rubio foreign policy also called for admitting Georgia to NATO at a time when Russia already had her tentacles in Georgia — an invitation to war with Russia.”
A staunch constitutionalist, Paul is insistent that the United States only enter into war after Congress has issued a declaration of war. He is adamantly opposed to war implemented through presidential executive order. Speaking directly about this issue, Paul declared:
“When I forced the Foreign Relations Committee to debate an authorization of military force against ISIS, Senators Rubio and McCain insisted that the new authorization be unlimited temporally or geographically. Basically, they want a war without end against an undefined enemy in an unspecified region of the world. And the legal authorization of war? That never came. So we fight on and on without any Constitutional authority. No one seems to care or dare to insist that Congress declare war as our founders intended.”
Specifically annoyed with Rubio’s purported backing of Barack Obama’s unconstitutional war instigations, Paul stated, “Senator Rubio wrote the President at the time that he saw ‘no legal reason preventing’ him from using his ‘commander-in-chief’ powers to attack ISIS. His letter makes no mention of the Constitutional requirement to seek Congressional authority.”
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