Rand Paul Quotes

I'm not sure that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama know that we're at war.

Now Republicans are a more interventionist party than they have been at any time since George W. Bush left office.

I think the President ought to bring everybody that's in American uniform back because we're headed for war.

The biggest budget is the military budget. For what? We're fighting two wars in very small countries that have no nuclear weapons, that have no capabilities to destroy anything. They probably couldn't even get to America.

In State of the Union addresses, I always look at the foreign policy and military parts first, which are generally pretty minimal.

For 50 years, the Republicans have been accusing the Democrats of being soft on national security.

How much do we really need for the defense of the United States of America? Only the defense to defend its shores? Well I suppose that the maximum for the defense of our shores is one billion dollars. So the rest of our defense budget relates to what we regard as our responsibilities as a world power.

[George W. Bush is] … the most dangerous President in my lifetime.

There is only one Republican presidential candidate that has a proven, courageous, and conservative record on national security: Marco Rubio.

The military people don't like it; the government probably doesn't like it, but the people should know what they're sending their young people into when they permit their governments to declare war and engage in war.

We need, from time to time, to use military force or all of the resources at our command in order to defend the nation and defend our friends. Sometimes, that requires us to take actions that generate controversy. I think there are probably some who actually believe, if we just go talk nice to these folks, everything is going to be OK. I don't think the world works that way.

Most people think the Iraq war has increased the probability of an attack. However, it's difficult to put this aspect into financial terms.

According to CNN, Donald Rumsfeld said the war in Iraq did not go according to plan. And President Bush said, 'What? We had a plan?'

When was the last time the United States won a war? You know, it lost in Vietnam. It's lost in Afghanistan. It's lost in Iraq. And it will not be able to contain the situation. It is hemorrhaging. It is now - you know, of course you can continue with drone attacks, and you can continue these targeted killings, but on the ground, a situation is being created which no army - not America, not anybody - can control. And it's just, you know, a combination of such foolishness, such a lack of understanding of culture in the world.

They [politicians] have defined the war simply in terms of the detonation of explosives. When you look at the broader picture, America is mired in two wars that we're losing at the moment. We have a political environment that is as poisonous as anything I've seen, at least since the end of Vietnam.

Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.

President Bush has a track record of making the right decisions when it comes to national security.

I was a member of the Armed Services Committee for 18 years. I spent a big chunk of my life studying national security issues and our role in the world.

The American people have no control over what the military does. We have no say in American foreign policy.

If Clinton had only attacked terrorism as much as he attacks George Bush we wouldn't be in this problem.

What I've learned, and will try to remember from now on, is that defending your country's credibility is never sufficient reason to fight a war.

I'm going to vote in support of the president of the United States in keeping the troops in Iraq until the president and our military is convinced that the mission is complete.

I believe in a strong national defense. But it's my belief that neither Iraq nor Afghanistan poses a threat to national security, and we shouldn't be involved in either area.

The reality is, the United States has global interests. Our defense budget is about the same as the defense budgets or military budgets of every other country in the world put together.

We have to defend America and be strong.