There isn’t a kind way to slice this one, and although Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is lashing out against Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) over America’s defense spending and so forth, the ensuing catfight over ISIL and who can be blamed. The Weekly Standard has the story:
“Graham would say ISIS exists because of people like Rand Paul who said, ‘Let’s not go into Syria.’ What do you say to Lindsey?” said Scarborough.
“I would say it’s exactly the opposite. ISIS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party who gave arms indiscriminately, and most of those arms were snatched up by ISIS,” said Paul. “These hawks also wanted to bomb Assad, which would have made ISIS’s job even easier. They created these people.”
Remember the old line about gun control? Saying that guns create crime is akin to saying spoons make you fat?
The fault game about ISIL is a distraction. What’s the plan for going in and fixing it now? What are people like McCain, Graham, and Paul willing and ready to do as U.S. Senators to put pressure on the Obama Administration to forge a new foreign policy that doesn’t abandon America’s interests in the Middle East?
Let’s be very clear: American arms did not create ISIL, who was quite active in Syria long before they came to Iraq to grab surplus American equipment they cannot possibly maintain and frankly don’t want. Far cheaper to fix a tactical with a .50 cal in the back than retool a Humvee — a vehicle the Ba’athist insurgency has been quite adept in blowing to pieces over the last 10 years — or an Abrams tank, which ISIL cannot operate or maintain at all. There’s plenty of cheap Soviet-era arms and equipment out there that does the same job for less.
ISIL exists because militant Islam exists.
ISIL began because the United States sponsored a series of “Arab Spring” movements that toppled leaders in Egypt, Libya, and very nearly in Syria, Algeria, and even our Jordanian allies.
ISIL expands because the Obama Administration broke their word to the Sunni tribal leaders and left Iraq.
ISIL will continue to expand because in a vacuum of leadership, they can.
This is what happens when you back away from the Pax Americana, folks. To say somehow that American arms created ISIL? Is absurd in the extreme. To argue that American arms left behind by retreating Iraqis bolstered an already advancing ISIL? Is sheer ignorance.
This is not an argument of principle, it is an argument of realpolitik. It’s not hard to firmly disagree with Sen. Paul on this one, and frankly, one has to be utterly disheartened to hear these remarks, as my sympathies and interest in Paul’s presidential campaign (as a few folks know) was indeed real and growing.
Solutions, folks… give us solutions. We’re starving for American leadership at home and abroad, and if the Obama Administration has proven anything in places such as the Ukraine, Middle East, and the Spratly Islands, the world is not a better place when America withdraws — or is simply unwilling to lead or support our allies.
