{"id":17562,"date":"2026-01-11T18:01:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T18:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/rand-paul-bombing-iran-is-not-the-answer\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T18:01:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T18:01:52","slug":"rand-paul-bombing-iran-is-not-the-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/rand-paul-bombing-iran-is-not-the-answer\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand Paul: Bombing Iran \u2018is not the answer\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Sen. Rand Paul expressed concerns Sunday over President Donald Trump\u2019s threats to bomb Iran as the Middle Eastern country sees widespread protests continue.<\/p>\n

Speaking with ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week,\u201d the Kentucky Republican said he is not sure striking Iran \u201cwill have the effects intended.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wish freedom and liberation the best around the world, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s the job of the American government to be involved with every freedom movement around the world,\u201d Paul said.<\/p>\n

Paul also expressed concerns over how the administration would distinguish between Iranian protesters and law enforcement if Trump were to approve military action in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you drop a bomb in the middle of a crowd or a protest and protect the people there?\u201d Paul said. \u201cPlus there’s the constitution that we don’t let presidents bomb countries when they feel like it. They are supposed to ask the people through the Congress for permission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Protests erupted in the Islamic Republic late last month as Iranians expressed dissatisfaction over the country\u2019s economic free fall. But as demonstrations have continued, many have begun to demand total regime change.<\/p>\n

Reports indicate thousands have been arrested, and agencies have been unable to confirm the total death toll due to an internet blackout as the regime works to quell the dissent. The latest Associated Press report<\/a> put the figure as at least 538.<\/p>\n

Trump on Friday warned Iranian leaders, \u201cYou better not start shooting, because we\u2019ll start shooting, too.\u201d And an a post to Truth Social on Saturday, the president wrote that \u201cIran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

But Paul on Sunday said that U.S. involvement may unintentionally rally protesters behind the Ayatollah.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you bomb the government, do you then rally people to their flag who are upset with the Ayatollah but then say, gosh, we can’t have a foreign government invading or bombing our country?\u201d Paul said. \u201cIt tends to have people rally to the cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the protests are justifiable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best way is to encourage them and say, we would recognize a government that is a freedom-loving government, that allows free elections, but bombing is not the answer,\u201d Paul said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Rand Paul expressed concerns Sunday over President Donald Trump\u2019s threats to bomb Iran as the Middle Eastern country sees widespread protests continue. Speaking with ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week,\u201d the Kentucky Republican said he is not sure striking Iran \u201cwill have the effects intended.\u201d \u201cWe wish freedom and liberation the best around the world, but I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}