Washington Examiner - Paul To College Audience: 'I'm Not Here To Send You To War'

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By Gabby Morrongiello

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul told students at Upper Iowa University Tuesday they could count on him not to send them to war if he becomes the next president.

The notoriously dovish Republican presidential candidate, who is tenth in the Washington Examiner's presidential power rankings, addressed a modest group of undergraduate supporters at the relatively small, private university as part of his college tour through the early voting state.

"I'm not here to send you to war," the libertarian-leaning senator said to the sparse auditorium Tuesday. "I think the Iraq War was a huge mistake."

According to a survey of Americans taken on the 10th anniversary of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, 50 percent of young adults, ages 18-29, said sending troops to fight in the Middle Eastern country was a mistake.

"If there's one true thing about the Middle East, when we topple secular dictators all we've gotten is chaos and instability," Paul said.

Shifting the discussion to present day, the Kentucky senator reiterated his opposition to President Obama wanting to "knock out" Syrian President Bashar Assad "because I think that if you topple Assad, ISIS will take over the whole place," he said.

"Look, tonight you have choices. You have the Democratic debate. What does Hillary Clinton believe?" Paul asked. "She wants a no-fly zone over there [and] so do most Republicans."

"A no-fly zone is a recipe for disaster; it's a recipe for another war over there," he added. "We spent $3 trillion on the Iraq War and 4,400 died because of it. Are we ready to do that again? I'm not."

According to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll, Paul currently polls at 4 percent among Republican primary voters in Iowa. The opthomologist-turned-senator previously told the Examiner his plans to focus heavily on the first-in-the-nation voting state are central to his campaign's success.

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