Tuesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said that it was not “in our national interest to send our young men and women in to fight and die in Iran.”
Paul said, “And I think the danger for that politically for Republicans is, you know, the war goes on another month, maybe the stickiness or the slowness to prices come down isn’t really complete by October or November, and has a big effect on the election. Now, I’m against the war, not for electoral reasons. I’m against the war because I don’t see a national interest in us, you know, expending 1 billion, $2 billion a day. But I also don’t see it for our young men and women, some of whom I know will serve in this. I really just don’t believe that ultimately it’s in our national interest to send our young men and women to fight and die in Iran.”
He added, “I hope the Iranians do rise up and fight. But it could also end the same way it ended last summer, in declaration of success, we obliterated their nuclear weapons until we say we didn’t obliterate their nuclear weapons and they’re only a week away again. You know, that canard has been out there for some 20 years, you know, we must attack Iran, it’s imminently going to happen, they’re getting a nuclear weapon next week. There literally are videos of people saying that 20 years ago. So I think there needs to be a more fulsome discussion of the pros and cons of our national security. Often, people say, ‘Oh, this war is in our national security interests.’ Well, that’s a conclusion, not a debate. The debate is really about why you think this war is in our national security interests. And I think there’s a lot of negative for the war, not a whole lot of upside for America.”
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