The U.S. should never get involved where we have no clear national interest. We should not intervene militarily in a country like Syria, where we can’t separate friend from foe and might end up arming the very people who hate us the most.
Interpretation
Intervention in foreign conflicts should only occur when there is a clear national interest.
In this quote, Rand Paul emphasizes the importance of understanding national interests before engaging in military intervention abroad. He warns against getting involved in complex foreign conflicts, like the situation in Syria, where the lines between allies and enemies are blurred, which could lead to unintended consequences such as supporting radical groups that oppose U.S. interests.
In practice
In a debate about military intervention, this quote can highlight the importance of national interest.
The GOP of old has grown stale and moss-covered. I don't think we need to name any names, do we? Our party is encumbered by an inconsistent approach to freedom. The new GOP will need to embrace liberty in both the economic and the personal sphere.
No American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found guilty of a crime by a court.
Opponents of civil liberties contend the NSA data collection has made our country more safe, but even the most vocal defenders of the program have failed to identify a single thwarted plot.
When you couple this militarization of law enforcement with an erosion of civil liberties and due process that allows the police to become judge and jury - national security letters, no-knock searches, broad general warrants, pre-conviction forfeiture - we begin to have a very serious problem on our hands.
I will speak until I can no longer speak. I will speak as long as it takes, until the alarm is sounded from coast to coast that our Constitution is important, that your rights to trial by jury are precious, that no American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found to be guilty by a court.
Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters. Not only is their time and labor due to the government, but they should scrupulously avoid in their political action, as well as in the discharge of their official duty, offending by a display of obtrusive partisanship their neighbors who have relations with them as public officials.
There is no private domain of a person's life that is not political, and there is no political issue that is not ultimately personal.
The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.
I happen to think that American politics is one of the noblest arts of mankind; and I cannot do anything else but write about it.
The people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government and to reform, alter, or totally change the same when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.
The State has invariably shown a striking talent for the expansion of its powers beyond any limits that might be imposed upon it.
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