Rand Paul: Working to keep neocons out of the State Department
Libertarian-leaning Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has been vocal on his opposition to talk of some possible Donald Trump State Department appointees in recent months for their uber-hawk, neoconservative foreign policy views.
Rand Paul on Senate floor/Video Screen Shot
In November, when word of former UN Ambassador, John Bolton’s name was being floated for Secretary of State, Dr Paul said, “I’ll do whatever it takes to stop someone like John Bolton being secretary of state. He’s opposed to everything Donald Trump ran on: that the Iraq war was a mistake, regime change made us less safe in the Middle East, including in Iraq…I don’t know how a President Trump could appoint someone who’s diametrically opposed to everything Donald Trump ran on.”
After Rex Tillerson was Trump’s choice, Bolton’s name was then floated for Deputy Secretary of State, which didn’t fly too well with the junior Senator from the Bluegrass state. “I think John Bolton is so far out of it, and has such a naïve understanding of the world, if he were to be the assistant or the undersecretary for Tillerson, I’m an automatic ‘No’ on Bolton,” Paul said.
Even former NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani didn’t fair much better with Paul when his name was up for consideration. “If you look at Giuliani’s statements, you will find he has advocated bombing Iran, he has advocated for intervention, to my knowledge he’s never admitted the Iraq war was a mistake,” Paul said of Giuliani. “To me, a big part of what Donald Trump said, in hundreds of speeches, was that the Iraq war was a mistake. I don’t know how you could appoint someone to be in charge of the Department of State who believes the Iraq war was a benefit.”
Today, in an Op-Ed in rare.us, Sen. Paul responds to rumors of a possible Trump pick for Deputy Secretary of State in the form of neoconservative Elliott Abrams.
Who is Elliott Abrams? According to the website, Right Web:
Elliott Abrams, a well-known neoconservative ideologue, is a senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. A key adviser on Mideast policy at the National Security Council (NSC) during the George W. Bush presidency, Abrams was a leading proponent of pursuing an aggressive “war on terror” after the 9/11 attacks.
Paul pens in his Op-Ed:
Neoconservative interventionists have had us at perpetual war for 25 years. While President Trump has repeatedly stated his belief that the Iraq War was a mistake, the neocons (all of them Never-Trumpers) continue to maintain that the Iraq and Libyan Wars were brilliant ideas. These are the same people who think we must blow up half the Middle East, then rebuild it and police it for decades.
They’re wrong and they should not be given a voice in this administration.
Abrams would be a terrible appointment for countless reasons. He doesn’t agree with the president in so many areas of foreign policy and he has said so repeatedly; he is a loud voice for nation building and when asked about the president’s opposition to nation building, Abrams said that Trump was absolutely wrong; and during the election he was unequivocal in his opposition to Donald Trump, going so far as to say, “the chair in which Washington and Lincoln sat, he is not fit to sit.”
Paul continues on a litany of reasons that President Trump should not appoint Abrams. Let’s hope he is listening.
They (The neocons) will never stop trying to slip into officials power in Washington. As former Texas Congressman Ron Paul said in 2013, “Though the neocons have had several set-backs, they will continue their efforts.”
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