Middle East/North Africa

Rand Paul rips Lindsey Graham: ‘Wrong about almost every foreign policy decision’

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) went after fellow GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham Tuesday morning on MSNBC, saying that the South Carolina senator has “been wrong about almost every foreign policy decision of the past two decades.”

“He was wrong about the Iraq War,” Paul told Stephanie Ruhle.

“He was wrong about the war in Libya,” Paul continued. “He’s wrong about this.”

Both conflicts, Paul said, only brought more “chaos and terrorism” to the respective regions.

{mosads}Graham has been one of many lawmakers who have vehemently opposed President Trump’s decision last week to remove remaining U.S. troops from the northeastern border of Syria. Graham went as far as to say that the removal of troops could be the biggest mistake of Trump’s presidency.

Later in the interview, Paul said that he “didn’t see a national interest” in Syria, believing that a “national debate” would be the best way to see if the U.S., in fact, did have an interest in the conflict.

On Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that he had launched a military offensive into Syria against Kurdish forces known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a vital ally to the U.S. in the fight against ISIS.

Over the weekend, the SDF made a deal with Syrian President Bashar Assad for the support of Syrian troops in the fight against Turkish forces.

Monday, Trump announced economic sanctions against Turkey for its military campaign into Syria.