Rand Paul: "How do you ask a man to be the first to die for a mistake?"

[Nye Bevan]

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press that he thinks the Senate "will rubber-stamp what (Obama) wants, but I think the House will be a much closer vote." Paul said he believes "it's at least 50-50 whether the House will vote down involvement in the Syrian war." Paul, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said it's not clear whether American interests are at stake in Syria, or whether opponents of the Assad regime would be any more friendly to the United States.

Paul recalled that Kerry said during the Vietnam War, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" "I would ask, 'How do you ask a man to be the first to die for a mistake?'" Paul said. "I'm not sending my son, your son or anybody else's son to fight for a stalemate."

.......

Rep. Chris Gibson, R-N.Y., an Army veteran with multiple foreign deployments, said Saturday, "I hope my colleagues will fully think through the weightiness of this decision and reject military action. The situation on the ground in Syria is tragic and deeply saddening, but escalating the conflict and Americanizing the Syrian civil war will not resolve the matter."

.......

Opposition to the use of force is not limited to the Republican Party. Democrat Betty McCollum, D-Minn., said in a statement: "Unilateral U.S. military action against the Syrian regime at this time would do nothing to advance American interests, but would certainly fuel extremist groups on both sides of the conflict that are determined to expand the bloodshed beyond Syria's borders."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/09/01/congress-syria-rand-paul-kerry/2752965/

[Cheap_Trick]

1. Ask George W Bush. nt

[morningfog]

2. He's right.

[reformist2]

3. So, how many Dems can we count on to vote this thing down?

It would be downright embarrassing if there end up being more pro-peace Repugs than pro-peace Dems!

[Skittles]

4. does he remind anyone else of Howdy Doody?

[MFrohike]

5. Ugh

What a useless sack of shit. He'd happily see people in his own country starve, but trots out the moral high horse for this. He's a posturing teenager with a dead muskrat on his head. Go to hell Rand and take dear old dad with you.

[Erose999]

6. Rand Paul wouldn't send his sons to fight anything. Just as Ron Paul didn't. I seriously doubt

there will be too many sons and daughters of congressmen fighting our upcoming wars.

[jazzimov]

7. No boots on the ground. nt

[Ohio Joe]

8. I hate it when these shit bags get their bullshit pimped here like it might be legit - nt

[Aristus]

9. There's very little oil in Syria.

Ergo, no really profitable reason to invade.

And let's be honest: the rich assholes of this country are never going to send their sons and daughters over to die when they can con working- and middle-class families into doing it with cheap appeals to a superficial patriotism...

[jmowreader]

10. Would he say the same thing if an R was president? Almost certainly not

Bush slickied Congress into signing off on Operation Iraqi Liberation based on a few pictures of weather balloon filling trailers and little empty vials they borrowwed from the local crack dealer. In Syria you have dead bodies that got that way from an active chemical weapons program and, considering the logistics involved in this gas, it probably came from Assad.

Here's the thing: if the casus belli for O.I.L. would have been live attacks in 2003 the GOP coulda sold tickets for the jumpseats on the -52G they used to nuke Baghdad. Because it's Obama they're hesitating.

[dkf]

11. His father voted against the Iraq War in 2002.