Rand Paul’s 2016 Agenda:
A Foreign Policy of Freedom
by Aly Basley
Sen. Rand Paul appeared on Meet the Press Sunday to make the case for the Paul Doctrine in American foreign policy. Since Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have been backtracking their answers to questions on the Iraq War, Paul said this calls for more debate amongst all presidential candidates.
Chuck Todd interviewed Paul to elaborate on claims and ideas he presented in his new book Taking a Stand.
When asked if he was satisfied by former Governor Bush’s “sort-of fourth answer” on whether or not he would have invaded Iraq like his brother decided to, Paul replied:
“Well I think it’s an important question and I don’t think it’s a historical antidote, I don’t think it’s something that’s a hypothetical question. I think it’s a recurring question in the mIddle east. Is it a good idea to topple secular dictators and what happens when we do?
I think when [Saddam] Hussein was toppled, we got chaos. We still have chaos in Iraq. I think it emboldened Iran. I think — we now have the rise of radical Islam in Iraq as well.”
Paul also took the chance to question Hillary Clinton’s stance on intervention in the Middle East, saying:
“I think the same question, to be fair, ought to be asked of Hillary Clinton, if she ever takes questions. They should ask her, ‘Was it a good idea to invade Libya? Did that make us less safe? Did it make it more chaotic? Did it allow radical Islam and isis to grow stronger?’ So I think the war in Iraq is a good question and still a current question, but so is the question of, ‘Should we have gone into Libya?’”
When asked what his approach would be towards a country pursuing nuclear weapons capability, Paul said he would “prefer diplomacy.” Channeling his father, Ron Paul, he brought up the example of U.S. negotiations with the Soviet Union that ended in peace.
On the upcoming vote to extend the PATRIOT Act, Paul reiterated his support for the 2nd Circuit’s opinion that declared the use of section 215 to justify bulk collection of Americans’ metadata illegal. Paul said such bulk collection “oughta stop” and that “if the president’s obeying the law, he should stop it immediately.” He said, “I don’t wanna replace it with another system. I really think we can get along with the Constitution just fine, we did for over 200 years.”
Chuck Todd then asked Paul to elaborate on an “intriguing” idea mentioned in his book on how millions of students can be taught by the greatest of professors at once in online classrooms. Paul excitedly said:
“When the internet expands this access and someone in the recesses of the jungle can learn from the best calculus teacher on the planet, we’re going to discover genius that’s going to allow progress and mankind to improve and it’s going to be a huge leap for technological progress.”
Paul rejected the idea that this kind of progress could come from government, saying it’s more likely to occur thanks to “the innovators you meet in Silicon Valley or the innovators you meet at Austin, Texas.”
Since his Republican opponents were fumbling with their answers this past week and Hillary Clinton is MIA, Paul has grabbed the media spotlight and questioned the limits of interventionist foreign policy. Supporters are now waiting to see if he can successfully ride this momentum into a filibuster of the PATRIOT Act that has the potential to derail its reauthorization.
