Interesting take by Rand Paul. Normally, I agree with a lot of Rand says, but this time, I must disagree. Suleimani was a very dangerous man and his removal from the arena will make Iran's terrorism less effective. I'm surprised Rand doesn't see the off-ramp. I see it clearly. The off-ramp is for the US to now pull out of the Middle East. No one wants us there. Many Americans, including me, don't want us there wasting our money and lives on nothing. The Middle East will never know peace because every country in the Middle East has artificial borders defined by Europeans from WWII and we're still trying to enforce those borders, despite the fact that the many tribal allegiances of the Middle East make those borders meaningless to the Middle Easterners themselves. We have no business being over there.
I think Trump made the right decision to take Suleimani out. Now, if I were him, I'd use that historic opportunity to pull out of Iraq and the broader Middle East with that win under our belt. I'd also continue to send the message to Iran that Suleimani was blood for blood for the American contractor and the 600 American soldiers' deaths Suleimani was responsible for. If they attack us again, we'll hit them twice as hard and it will be worse next time, because we will no longer allow Iran to orchestrate attacks against us and remain untouched themselves. But I would also send the message that we are no longer in the Middle Eastern nation building business. We're out and they can police themselves, but if they ever come to our soil again like 9/11, then we'll trace it back to the host country and we'll destroy that country, just like we did Afghanistan, but next time, we will not nation build.
Our military needs to be used for defense and for punitive actions, not for nation building and occupation of other countries. It's time to end the role of world police. We're too broke to do that now. |
