Rand Paul Opposes Arming Syrian Soldiers

The fight against the Islamic State is a very complicated one. Here in the states, there are strong opinions on every side. President Obama is slowly releasing more details of his strategy to “destroy and degrade” ISIS, and as every new piece of information comes out, more people are forming their opinions.

Thursday morning, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel testified before House Representatives to answer questions from Congress about the strategy. Many representatives voiced their strong concerns about putting weapons, training and money in the hands of a militia group that doesn’t even have a leader.

Before the hearing even got to the Senate, two Congressmen got a little heated. Senator John McCain has long been a staunch advocate of swift military action. And when Kentucky Senator Rand Paul called him on it, he got a little upset. Paul hit a sore spot with McCain when he pointed out a picture several news agencies published where the Senator was smiling with several Islamic State leaders. Since that time, many of those very same media outlets went back and rescinded their claims, saying that the men were NOT from the Islamic State, but it’s unclear exactly how they came to that conclusion. To the best of our knowledge, no reporter has tweeted or written an apology for getting the facts wrong.

But after the dust settled, Paul redirected the conversation to the point at hand. Exactly WHO are the people America is about to give these weapons to? How do Americans KNOW these weapons won’t wind up in Islamic State hands? And what can America do to prevent this from unraveling? All of these questions are being debated in Congressional hearings this week. As we know more, we’ll be sure to report it right here, on WHDT.