Rand Paul on arming Syrian rebels: ‘We’ll be fighting our own weapons’

Rare.us
9/18/2014

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) spoke on the Senate floor Thursday, urging a virtually empty chamber not to arm and train the Syrian rebels for a variety of reasons.

Paul wasn’t convinced, first of all, that the Free Syrian Army needs any additional arms.

“We gave 600 tons of weapons to the Syrian rebels in 2013 alone,” Paul said, wondering why they need more weapons and why “ISIS grew stronger during the time we gave more weapons.”

“Perhaps sending more weapons into the Syrian civil war is not working,” he added.

The Kentucky senator also expressed his doubts about the so-called “vetted opposition” and whether we even know who they are. He cited a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and Syria Ryan C. Crocker as saying “frankly we don’t have a clue” who the supposed moderates are.

Thirdly, Paul wondered, as Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) did Wednesday, why President Obama is so quick to support the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) as his legal precedent for arming the rebels, when he’s been an outspoken opponent of it in the past…

 

 

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