Rand Paul Quotes

There are still people - the majority on the stage, they want to topple [Bashar] Assad. And then there will be chaos, and I think ISIS will then be in charge of Syria.

I think it is absolutely correct to solve the problem of terrorism in Iraq and Syria and Libya.

We pulled out of Libya. Now look what's happened: a safe haven, a vacuum, ISIS training militants to hit in Tunisia.

Choosing to arm and train the Islamist opposition against dictator Moammar Gadhafi unleashed its most ruthless terrorist elements.

American wars in Muslim countries created some extremists and inflamed many more while producing a security vacuum that allowed them to wreak mayhem.

I think that ISIS is a problem and it's really a symptom of a much greater problem.

I think it's a huge mistake. I think regime change in Syria, and this is what - I've been saying this for several years now. In 2013 when we first went in, I said, you are going to give arms to the allies of al Qaida, to radical jihadists? That's crazy.

Being an occupier is not good for anybody's global standing. It is a catalyst for terrorist recruitment.

The road ahead is not easy. Iraq is currently the center of the war on terror.

This war on terrorism is going to continue for an indefinite period of time.

As the war on terrorism spreads and prolongs, the fruits of ending the threat of terrorism around the world will be tempered with a whole new series of problems to be addressed and resolved.

ISIS is in many ways a creation of the Syrian regime.

Anybody who believes that we can democratize Iran, Iraq and Syria by military force is living in a fantasy world.

Iraq is a terrible place. Some fool American is going to come out here and try to redesign it

We saw Vietnam disintegrating before our eyes—at least the structure of the state disintegrating.

Failed states have become breeding grounds for conflict.

Libya became a rat's nest of extremism after NATO helped depose dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and it now exports weapons, jihadists, and ideology to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

We have a failed state in Syria.

ISIS filled the vacuum in Iraq and Syria created by a lack of effective governance.

Where the West has intervened in African domestic affairs, such as it did in Libya 2011, the country became a cradle of extremism that exports weapons, jihadists, and ideology to the rest of Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.

As brutal as Saddam Hussein was, it was a mistake to just eliminate him. The same is true for Moammar Gadhafi and for Libya, which is now a failed state.

The deep problems that afflict the Middle East are not easy to fix, but they must be dealt with if we are not to see a son of ISIS, or even a grandson of ISIS, developing in the years to come.

It is very much in America's national security interests to ensure that the Taliban do not dominate Afghanistan and that neither ISIS nor al Qaeda continues their growth in the country.

Libya is a huge disaster.

There is no question that what we are seeing - the horrible advance of ISIS - goes back, if you will, to the original sin of the invasion of Iraq.