Rand Paul Praises Assad

[onehandle]

Source: Huffington Post

WASHINGTON - Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Sunday portrayed the current conflict in Syria as one between the government of President Bashar Al Assad, who Paul said "has protected Christians for a number of decades," and "Islamic rebels," who Paul said "have been attacking Christians" and are aligned with Al Qaeda.

"I think the Islamic rebels winning is a bad idea for the Christians, and all of a sudden we'll have another Islamic state where Christians are persecuted," Paul said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Paul was likely referring to a string of incidents in Egypt in recent weeks, where supporters of the deposed government of former president Mohamed Morsi have burned Coptic Christian churches to protest what they see as Christian backing for the military overthrow of Morsi's government.

Earlier on Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry said that tissue samples from Syria showed evidence that sarin gas was used to kill at least 1,400 civilians outside Damascus on August 21 -- an attack the White House says Assad's government carried out.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/01/rand-paul-syria_n_3852644.html

---

Muslims are worth less than Christians to Rand Paul. Libertarians are just GOP Conservative teabagger hate-mongers.

[Lithos]

1. He really likes the war on women and children Assad is waging

.. I mean from one narcissistic power hungry jerk to another

[Turborama]

2. Why does he care about one religion over another?

Wasn't Ayn Rand an atheist?

[CSStrowbridge]

6. Not just an atheist...

Not just an atheist, but an anti-theist. She actively disliked religion. That's something the Objectionists in the GOP tend to forget / ignore.

[Posteritatis]

20. She loved powertripping egomaniacs in most of their forms, though.

Idolized casual murderers for bucking the system, fun stuff like that.

[Left Coast2020]

23. Will they take tissue samples of Rand Pauls brain?

They should?

[Erose999]

24. Anything there has degraded too much for analysis.

[Erose999]

25. Rand Paul is actually a worshipper of the elder god Aqua Buddha.

[CSStrowbridge]

3. There is a huge difference between...

There is a huge difference between not wanting to go to war because you think you will make the situation worse and calling Assad a good guy. Rand Paul is clearly nuts.

[Billy Love]

4. OK, so that's a NO from Rand Paul? ooookkkayyyy...

Moron.

We're holding you on that since you're a big Assad fan.

[JohnnyLib2]

5. Kick. This guy is ever more alarming as a potential candidate.

[revmclaren]

7. Really need to start calling him

'WRONG' Paul!

A toast from a' Union and proud' worker on Labor Day weekend.

[Warpy]

8. Guess we know how the addlepated wingnut vote will go

even though the rich men who think they control the party also think they want another war we can't win.

[yoloisalie]

9. Haha

The pro war crowd are sweating bullets. I saw the MTP interview and the only thing positive he said about Assad is that he protected Christians and hes not an Islamist leader. Which is true, will they also accuse one of praising Assad if one says the he welcomed Iraqi refugees to his country after the US destroyed it?

[DallasNE]

28. Only Half Of The Story

The other half was that the Assad faction needs to remain in power to continue to protect the Christians because none of the rebels will protect the Christians. He suggested that this could happen only if Obama would engage Russia and press them to remove Assad and install an Assad loyalist to replace him. No elections -- just the face of a different dictator. Besides, what has Paul been smoking if he thinks that Putin would do America such a favor. Paul was way, way out in right field on MTP. And why didn't David Gregory follow up when he was spouting such crap.

[NutmegYankee]

35. Most realize that a complete change in power will result in a bloodbath.

Assad is a brutal dictator, but the bulk of his support (Alawite, Christian, Shia, usually urban) know that they will be severely punished by the Sunni Rebels (usually rural people) if they get power. For the Alawites who make up a major part of the Syrian army, this fight is literally a life or death struggle for their families and loved ones. They will not lay down their arms because doing so means genocide for them.

Situation totally fucked.

[MindMover]

10. This guy is a royal dipstick who will say anything to foment his discussion ....

Absolutely ridiculous ....

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dipstick

[madamesilverspurs]

11. Weirdly,

like Rand Paul, Assad is an eye doctor.

Doesn't mean anything, but it is what it is.

[SoapBox]

12. What the fuck?

Shit...what a sicko.

Are ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, PBS, MSNBC, NPR and the like going to cover this?

[joshcryer]

13. There's this racist view that Muslims are incapable of being civilized.

No doubt Rand Paul, as do a chunk of DUers, shares that idea.

So you need horrible dictators to control them.

Except if those dictators are in the pockets of the US, they're bad dictators (Mubarak, Bin Ali), if they're not in the "pockets" of the US (perceived) then they're "good" dictators, keeping the horrible Muslim Arab radical threat at bay (Assad, Hussein, Gaddafi).

[pampango]

31. Indeed, they do not understand that a secular (if brutal) dictator is the best they can hope for.

Their preference for democracy must be a sign of how "uncivilized" they are.



In the US we understand that "stability" ("law and order&quot is better for them (and for us?) than is democracy.



Democrats leaned more towards democracy over stability than did republicans, but a majority of Democrats still favored stability as our main policy goal in the Middle East.

There was a bigger partisan difference with regards to changes brought about by the Arab Spring would lead to "lasting improvements" in the lives of the people there. Republicans were very negative on the Arab Spring by more than 4-1. Democrats were much more split - 45% negative, 37% positive. Lastly, republicans thought the Arab Spring was bad for the US by almost another 4-1 margin. Again, Democrats were more split with 21% believing it was bad for the US, while 16% thought it was good.

[joshcryer]

32. Wow, that deserves its own post.

Thanks for posting that.

[NutmegYankee]

36. It has nothing to do with muslims

Countries with many minority groups tossed together have split apart in horrible bloodbaths in the past after a dictators death. Take white Yugoslavia, where the Christians were the lead butchers.

[alittlelark]

14. Rand Paul is a silver spoon 'moran'

I doubt he has two quality neurons to rub together..... But he DOES have daddies name as well as his mindless minions.

[PatrynXX]

15. first off Rand is tea party second Ron is Libertarian

Third guess he loves the serbs...

[TwilightGardener]

16. Can anyone explain to me why I hear from Lil' Curly on foreign policy?

Is he some sort of expert? Why does anyone pay attention to him?

[lastlib]

17. How about we bomb Rand Paul and.....

....just scare the sh1t out of Assad???

[another_liberal]

18. Assad is no one to praise, not by any civilized measure known to man.

Rand Paul needs to check himself into rehab at once.

This loon is a United States Senator? Good Lord!

[David__77]

19. What did he say here that's wrong?

Please, someone challenge a specific point.

[yoloisalie]

21. I watched the whole interview and

what baffles me is how this story is all they got from the interview. The part where he used Kerry's anti war speech to congress against him should have been the focus of the article but we get this to smear anti Syrian war people.

"How can you tell a man to be the last to die for a lie" and somehow he re phrased it to apply to the Syrian conference. That was genius

[karynnj]

34. Except for the fact that it was designed just to

annoy Kerry and ignores that there will be no boots on the ground or planes in the air. Where Kerry's comment - at 27 - was heartfelt and poignant, Rand's is merely smirky.

[Douglas Carpenter]

22. it is hardly a secret that the Christian minority are an essential part of Assad's political base

The collapse of the Assad regime should the rebels prove victorious will likely mean retribution against them. As one of the slogans of the "Free Syria" movement goes, "Christians to Beirut - Alawites to the grave."

[HooptieWagon]

29. True.

Syria has a secular government that had some protections in place for religious minorites. And those protections will vanish if the rebels take control...if not an out and out genocide on christians and alawites.

So, while Rand Paul's comments were intended as muslim-bashing pandering to a christian audience, the facts he stated are essentially correct.

[madamesilverspurs]

26. Well, there's this. . .

[DallasNE]

27. Yikes, Rand Paul Is Getting Way Out There

I just finished listening to a rerun of MTP and Paul is calling for Russia to force Assad out of power and to replace him with an Assad stooge so we can have a stable government in Syria and one that protects the Christian population. He fears that the current rebels are all linked to al Qaeda and bent on attacking Christians, following what has recently happened in Egypt after the military toppled PM Morsi from power. Does anybody realistically believe that the rebels would put down their arms if a stooge of Assad's is installed in power. No call for elections should Assad be deposed either. While that may be the outcome Paul desires there is not a snowball's chance in hell that that will ever happen. The obvious fallback position for Paul is support for Assad in his battle against the rebels, never mind that over 100,000 have been killed at the hands of Assad and massive refugee camps near the border with Jordan and others. Oddly, David Gregory did not question Paul on how he would get Russia to pull the rug on Assad and what his plan B would be when that failed as it most surely would.

[HooptieWagon]

30. Not all the rebels are AQ-backed.

Some rebel groups are. The Free Syrian Army is secular...not backed by AQ...but may have individual members who are AQ.
A great number of foreign jihadists have joined up with the Syrian rebels. Its a reasonable assumption that they are at least AQ sympathisers, if not actual members.
This is why support for the rebels is tricky. It might be easy to say give arms to FSA, but individuals may then steer those arms to AQ-backed groups (or even AQ in other countries).
Probably no single rebel group has the numbers and power to rule Syria if Assad is removed from power, so its logical to assume they would start fighting each other in that event. That would extend the warring for many more years.

[Initech]

33. So Rand Paul praises a murderous dictator. Great.

[jmowreader]

37. When is Rand Paul planning on moving there?

Obviously Bashar al-Assad is just the greatest guy going because he protects Christians; isn't that just the place Rand would be happiest in?