Rand Paul to hawks: Downing of Russian plane highlights need for better communication

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said that Turkey’s downing of a Russian war plane fighting ISIS is a perfect example of why U.S. hawks are wrong to advocate cutting communication with the U.S.’s Cold War adversary.

Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson all called for a no-fly zone over Iraq or Syria to send a message to Russia during the last GOP presidential debate.

Bob Livingston, at the time, explained to readers why that would be insane:

A no-fly zone is an act of war. ISIS — our purported enemy in the region — doesn’t have an air force. So who is the no-fly zone for if not to oppose Russia and Syria? So establishing or attempting to establish a no-fly zone over Iraq — which has hinted it’ll ask the Russians to use their aircraft to help defeat ISIS — would provoke a clash between U.S. and Russian aircraft, sparking World War III. Likewise, the Syrians have asked Russia — not the U.S. — for help. So any no-fly zone over Syria is an overt act of war.

Congress has not authorized military intervention in Syria. Any military action at all in Syria — and that includes President Obama’s drone strikes — is, therefore, illegal and unconstitutional. Kasich was almost cavalier when he remarked that that if Russian planes crossed into his no-fly zone a second time, they would be shot down.

Presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) also lamented that his fellow GOP hopefuls were advocating a provocative and dangerous strategy. In addition, he said, calls to cease diplomatic communications with Russia would only make the world less stable.

Following Turkey’s downing of a Russian military jet, Paul said the incident — one that occurred because of the very type of policies his opponents are promoting — could lead to nuclear war.

“The shooting down of a Russian fighter jet illustrates precisely why we need open lines of communication with Russia and should resist calls from some presidential candidates to isolate ourselves from discussions with our adversaries,” Paul said in a statement released by his presidential campaign.

Paul continued: “Those who are calling for a no-fly zone need to realize that shooting down other countries’ fighter jets will be the result and a war between nuclear superpowers a possibility.”

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