Cheney: Sen. Rand Paul ‘basically an isolationist’

Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday said he hasn’t picked a 2016 presidential favorite yet but called Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) an “isolationist” whose policies “won’t work in the aftermath of 9/11.”

{mosads}“I haven’t picked a nominee yet, but one of the things that’s right at the top of my list is whether or not the individual we nominate believes in a strong America, believes in a situation where the United States is able to provide the leadership in the world basically to maintain the peace,” said Cheney on ABC’s “This Week.”

“Rand Paul, by my standards, as I look at his philosophy, is basically an isolationist,” he added. “That didn’t work in the 1930s; it sure as heck won’t work in the aftermath of 9/11.”

Last week, Cheney wrote an editorial in The Wall Street Journal criticizing President Obama’s foreign policy for withdrawing troops from Iraq without leaving forces to prevent groups like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria from taking over.

Cheney’s editorial came under fire from the left and also on the right from people like as Paul, who wrote an editorial in the Journal criticizing Bush administration officials.

“Many of those clamoring for military action now are the same people who made every false assumption imaginable about the cost, challenge and purpose of the Iraq war,” said Paul. “They have been so wrong for so long. Why should we listen to them again?”

Paul is considered a potential GOP nominee for the 2016 presidential election.