President Donald Trump and his administration have shared many different reasons for his now-ongoing war on Iran, and none of them have convinced Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to support the conflict, which has already cost at least seven U.S. servicemembers their lives.
Paul has distinguished himself from the majority of his GOP peers by opposing the administration’s foreign interventions and military operations, and criticized the purported rationales for the Iran war during an appearance on Tuesday on the Fox Business Network.
“One reason is that we want to free the Iranian people from oppression,” Paul told Maria Bartiromo. “I have a great deal of sympathy. I want people to be free around the world. But if our foreign policy is to free oppressed people, I’m not sure where war would end.”
He explained, “I mean, there are many people that are said to be oppressed in China, Tibet, the Uyghurs, North Korea, Russia. Where would war end if our goal is to free oppressed people? So I think that goal is too grandiose and would perpetually tie us up in war.”
Paul argued that the purportedly most pressing reason is just as questionable as the first.
