US Republican presidential hopefuls clashed over foreign policy at a conference on Saturday in New Hampshire, a small Northeastern US state that plays an outsized role in the presidential nominating process.
Senator Rand Paul, a first-term senator from Kentucky, lashed out at military hawks in the Republican Party. The libertarian-minded Paul, who favors a smaller US footprint in the world, said that some of his Republican colleagues would do more harm in international affairs than would presidential hopeful and former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton of the Democratic Party.
“The other Republicans will criticize the president and Hillary Clinton for their foreign policy, but they would just have done the same thing — just 10 times over,” Paul said on the closing day of a New Hampshire Republican conference that brought about 20 presidential prospects to the first-in-the-nation primary state.
“There’s a group of folks in our party who would have troops in six countries right now, maybe more,” Paul said.
Foreign policy looms large in the presidential race as the US struggles to resolve diplomatic and military conflicts across the globe.
The Republican presidential class regularly rails against US President Barack Obama’s leadership on the world stage, however some would-be contenders have yet to articulate their own positions, while others offered sharply different visions.
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, whose brother former US president George W. Bush authorized the 2003 invasion of Iraq, declined to say whether he would have done anything different then. However, Jeb Bush acknowledged a shift in his party against new military action abroad.
“Our enemies need to fear us, a little bit, just enough for them to deter the actions that create insecurity,” Jeb Bush said earlier in the conference, “[restoring alliances] that will create less likelihood of America’s boots on the ground has to be the priority, the first priority of the next president.”
Republican hawks were well represented at the event, led by Florida Senator Marco Rubio and several lesser-known White House prospects.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham addressed the question of putting US troops directly in the battle against Islamic State (IS) militants by saying there is only one way to defeat the group, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“You go over there and you fight them so they don’t come here,” he said.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz suggested an aggressive approach as well.
“The way to defeat ISIS is a simple and clear military objective,” he said. “We will destroy them.”
“The world is a more dangerous and more tragic place when America is not leading, and America has not led for quite some time,” Businesswoman Carly Fiorina said.
There were few specifics offered in the conference, which came as several presidential candidates accelerate their political operations. Clinton began her campaign last week, and the emphasis on foreign affairs suggests her time as secretary of state will play prominently in the contest.
While the Republican field is likely to be crowded, Clinton is not expected to face any major challengers in the battle for the Democratic nomination. Clinton is making her first trip to New Hampshire today and tomorrow in her first trip to the early voting state since declaring her second bid for the Democratic presidential nomination on April 10. Clinton won the 2008 New Hampshire primary before eventually losing the Democratic nomination to Obama.
Cruz, Paul and Rubio have already declared their candidacies. Jeb Bush is expected to enter the race soon.
Paul did not totally reject the use of military force, noting that he recently introduced a declaration of war against the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. However, in an interview reporters, he emphasized the importance of diplomacy.
He singled out Russia and China, two nations that have complicated relationships with the US, as countries that could contribute to US foreign policy interests.
“I think the Russians and the Chinese have great potential to help make the world a better place,” he said. “I don’t say that naively that they’re going to, but they have the potential to.”
Paul suggested the Russians could help by getting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to leave power.
“Maybe he goes to Russia,” Paul said.
Despite tensions with the US, Russia and China negotiated alongside Washington in nuclear talks with Iran. Paul has said he is keeping an open mind about the nuclear negotiations.
“The people who already are very skeptical, very doubtful, may not like the president for partisan reasons,” he said, and “just may want war instead of negotiations.
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