Rand Paul to Jeb Bush on War in Iraq: We’re a Lot Worse Off with Saddam Gone

PAUL: “I think it’s a really important question and I don’t think it’s just hypothetical because we seem to have a recurring question in the Middle East whether or not it’s a good idea to topple a secular strongmen or secular dictators and what happens after that. You know, Hillary Clinton’s war in Libya was the same kind of scenario. We toppled Gaddafi, a secular dictator, but we got chaos and the rise of radical Islam and I think we’re more threatened now. But I think the same was true of Saddam Hussein. I think Iran is now stronger and emboldened. In many ways Iraq is sort of a vassal state to Iran. We worry about Iran getting a nuclear weapon. I think we’re a lot worse off with Hussein gone. There’s a civil war going on there. We were also making a mistake to try to degrade Assad because as we degraded the strongman Assad, ISIS grew. I think there’s a consistent theme here that every candidate should be asked, and that is: is it a go ahead idea to go into the Middle East, topple governments and hope that something better rises out of the chaos because recent history seems to show that you know what, we’re not getting something better, we’re getting something worse.”