Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks to conservatives at the American for Prosperity rally, on August 29, 2014.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks to conservatives at the American for Prosperity rally, on August 29, 2014. LM Otero/AP

The Wars Rand Paul Would Fight

In a speech at the Center for the National Interest, the Kentucky senator outlined 'the Paul Doctrine.' By Dominic Tierney

If Rand Paul is the “most interesting man in politics,” as Time magazine recently put it, perhaps this says more about the state of American politics than it does about Rand Paul. Still, the senator from Kentucky is at least willing to question conventional foreign-policy thinking by staking out a position of non-interventionism. Paul’s challenge is to square these ideas with a GOP base that remains committed to a Reaganite model of peace through strength. On Thursday night, in a speech at the Center for the National Interest, he outlined the Paul Doctrine, and used every available trick to reconcile his thinking with traditional GOP beliefs.

First of all, Paul stressed, the GOP doesn’t have to give up its principles to back his brand of "conservative realism.”

“Americans yearn for leadership and for strength, but they don't yearn for war,” he declared.

“Yes, we need a hammer ready, but not every civil war is a nail.”

“We can’t retreat from the world, but we can’t remake it in our own image either.”

Strengthening American leadership, maintaining a strong military, and refusing to retreat are true Republican ideas. But according to Paul, waging a quixotic crusade to spread American ideals is something that Obama would dream up.

Paul also tried to legitimize his ideas by placing them squarely in the midstream of historic GOP foreign-policy thinking. He sprinkled in ample references to heroic Republicans of past and present like Ike, Reagan, and Kissinger. By implication, all of them would readily endorse Paul in the GOP primary.

Paul also echoed the Republican Weinberger-Powell Doctrine (outlined by Caspar Weinberger, the secretary of defense, and Colin Powell, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in the 1980s and early 1990s) by presenting a series of tests that should be passed before using force—for example, only fighting wars to protect vital U.S. interests and with congressional support.

In the kind of messy civil wars we face today, decisive success is often a distant mirage.

Paul’s most interesting tactic was to make the case for non-interventionism sound distinctly hawkish. “America shouldn’t fight wars where the best outcome is stalemate,” he said. “America shouldn’t fight wars when there is no plan for victory.” In other words, go big or go home. ‘Victory’ is a word we don’t hear much these days, and it’s a popular one with the GOP base.

But this is really a dovish argument: If there’s no path to victory, the U.S. shouldn’t use force at all. In the kind of messy civil wars we face today, decisive success is often a distant mirage. So the answer, according to Paul, is to stay out of the quagmire. No more ill-considered missions like the Libyan intervention, where Muammar al-Qaddafi is overthrown only for the country to become “a jihadist wonderland.”

Paul should be credited for broadening the GOP foreign-policy debate. And there’s considerable merit in his preference for thinking carefully through the endgame of war, building congressional support before seizing the sword, and recognizing the potential for blowback from drone strikes.

But there are also problems with the Paul Doctrine—some of them potentially irreconcilable. The senator laid out his criteria for when to fight wars and then immediately violated those criteria by backing the campaign against ISIS, where there is no clear endgame. “Although I support the call for defeating and destroying ISIS, I doubt that a decisive victory is possible in the short term, even with the participation of the Kurds, the Iraqi government, and other moderate Arab states,” he said.

Here lies the fundamental problem with fighting for victory or not fighting at all. What if U.S. leaders don’t want either option? What if they resist the kind of commitment necessary to defeat the enemy any time soon, but they also refuse to do nothing? Do they embrace a limited campaign like Obama’s airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, where clear-cut success is a remote hope?

In truth, there’s little point in launching a regime-change mission if the country then descends into chaos and anarchy.

And there’s another issue. Paul insists on decisive success in wartime but categorically rejects any hint of “nation-building.” But what does victory mean in a campaign like Afghanistan, Iraq, or Libya, unless America creates a viable new regime through some kind of nation-building?

Paul claimed the Afghanistan War evolved from “a just, necessary war” into a “nation-building” mission. But in reality the Bush administration had no desire to nation-build in Afghanistan, and basically walked away from the country after overthrowing the Taliban, as officials turned their attention to Iraq. In 2002, there were only 10,000 American troops in the whole of Afghanistan. The Taliban recovered because there was nothing to stop them. In truth, there’s little point in launching a regime-change mission if the country then descends into chaos and anarchy. That mission also requires a plan to win the peace.

Will Republicans buy the Paul Doctrine? On Thursday, Paul threw out just enough red meat about Obama’s weakness to keep his audience from leaping on stage and devouring him. But to vaccinate himself against the charge of irresolution and isolationism, the senator will likely have to move further in the hawkish direction. Pitching fewer wars as a quest for victory that would make Reagan proud will only get Paul so far. The GOP wants to go big whereas Paul wants to go home.

NEXT STORY: Ukrainians Vote To Face West

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.