ANKARA
U.S. Senator Rand Paul blamed a “neocon war caucus” in the senate for dragging Washington into wars across the world and supported President Donald Trump’s decision to bring American troops home from Syria.
“So many neocons want us to stay in wars all over the Middle East forever. @realDonaldTrump is absolutely right to end those wars and bring the troops home,” Paul tweeted Monday.
Trump reiterated his administration’s commitment to withdraw troops from Syria on Monday, following a telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart a day earlier.
“The United States was supposed to be in Syria for 30 days, that was many years ago. We stayed and got deeper and deeper into battle with no aim in sight,” Trump tweeted.
“I stand with @realDonaldTrump today as he once again fulfills his promises to stop our endless wars and have a true America First foreign policy,” he added.
Paul spoke Monday to Fox News and explained why he disagreed with GOP heavyweights, including Senators Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell, who voiced deep concern about Trump’s decision, and he said the names listed were the “neocon war caucus” of the senate.
“Well, it sounded like you just listed the neocon war caucus of the Senate,” said Paul. “So, yeah, they always want to stay at war. They always think it’s the best answer.”
Paul said Trump “recognized what Ronald Reagan recognized unfortunately too late in Beirut.”
“Leaving three or four hundred people in an area that are vulnerable could lead to catastrophe but also doesn’t really do anything to secure our national security. You know I am kind of a go big or go home,” he said.
Sympathizing with Turkey’s burden with over 3 million Syrian refugees, Paul said the locals in the region has more at stake in the developments and have to decide on their future.
“The Turks live over there, the Syrians live over there, and they have apparently come to an agreement and there is about three million Syrian refugees in Turkey. You know they are going to try to get some of those people back into Syria and they have to have an area, a zone where they can control that,” Paul said.
“I think that the best answer is that we don’t have all the answers and the people who live there are always going to have more of a stake in the game and we need to not think that it is always the U.S.’ responsibility to fight every war and find every peace. We haven’t been able to find peace for Afghanistan for 18 years, so I certainly think we won’t find peace in Syria. But I do think a couple of hundred of people there is simply a tripwire for a bigger war or for a calamity for our soldiers,” he said.
Paul stressed that it is “unrealistic” to expect Turkey or Syria to give up on a part of their territory for a designated autonomous region for the PKK/YPG terror group and said if the Kurds want autonomy, they should go live in the autonomous Kurdish region within Iraq.
Since 2016, Turkey’s Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations in northwestern Syria have liberated the region from YPG/PKK and Daesh terrorists, making it possible for nearly 400,000 Syrians who fled the violence to return home to Western Syria.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU — has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. YPG is the Syrian branch of the terrorist organization PKK.
“I think back after world War I, we could have done a better job drawing up these country lines. Right now, there at least is one autonomous Kurdish region within Iraq, and I think that is a good place for people to live if they want to have more Kurdish autonomy,” Paul said. “It may be unrealistic to think that either Turkey or Syria is going to give up part of their territory way up there to an autonomous region for the Kurds,” he added.
