REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE BLAMES OWN PARTY FOR IS RISE
WASHINGTON: Rand Paul, a Republican senator running for the White House, on Wednesday shocked his own party holding it responsible for the rise of the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria.
“IS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party who gave arms indiscriminately,” Paul, who represents Kentucky, said on MSNBC’s. “They created these people.”
Paul’s isolationist views, like his father Ron Paul’s — who twice ran for the White House, make him an outlier in his party on most issues, specially foreign policy.
Louisiana’s Indian-American governor Bobbly Jindal, who is exploring a presidential run, was quick to attack Paul, calling him unfit to be the country’s commander-in-chief. But Paul and other Republicans already in the fray find themselves compelled to take positions that will get them noticed in an ever-expanding field.
Two more have entered the race — former senator Rick Santorum, who finished second behind Mitt Romney in 2012, and former governor George Pataki.
There are now eight officially in the running, with two waiting in the wings with their respective exploratory committees — former governor Jeb Bush and Jindal.
Paul comments on IS, however, set him on a collision course with his party, which is trying to blame its rise on President Barack Obama and by extension to Democrats. They argue that IS would not have grown into the threat it is now if Obama had adhered to the redline he drew for Bashar al-Asaad and intervened in Syria. Democrats, on the other hand, pin the blame on George W Bush’s invasion of Iraq.