>> republican presidential candidate rand paul recently made a campaign stop in des moines, iowa -- speaking at the university. the kentucky senator spoke about foreign policy, national debt, and the rights of lgbt employees. [applause] senator rand paul: thank you. thank you. [applause] thank you. [applause] thank you. [applause] drake, you guys got out of class today. how many of you are registered for the draft? women already registered, i did not know that. the secretary of the army said they would register women come as well. he thinks they may have to. but my question is, why do you think the government registers you at all?

we do not have a draft. they have your social security number, what do they want you to register? i'm thinking they want you to admit your submission -- admit that you will go wherever, whenever they tell you. but you know what? you get a choice, a choice on who you elect to run the country them on whether or not you will go to war are not. this is the issue of the day, right now. it is becoming more and more profound and more and more imminent. why is it an issue? because you have virtually every other residential candidate saying we must have a no-fly zone. we must tell russia they cannot fly over syria or iraq. what do you think that means? right now, russia is already flying over syria and iraq. why? syria invited them, iraq invited them. as carly fiorina has, as hillary clinton has, as rubio and

several others have, we will enforce a no-fly zone over an area where people already flying -- what you think that means? that means we will shoot down russian fighters. trying to0 years avoid an altercation, trying to avoid an altercation with another superpower that has nuclear weapons. who are the people that try to avoid war? ronald reagan, even though he is not always to way by the liberal media, he did not shut down communications. the actually opened communication with the russian. so we have people in the republican stage now saying we should not talked to putin. that is a recipe for disaster. in all be flying our jets 100 square mile area and we will not have a discussion with vladimir putin? that is a recipe for disaster. all quiethave read "a

on the western front?" the headmaster encourage them to go to war. it was most to be so patriotic, such a great thing -- world war i. people today still dispute why the hell they fought the war. millions of people died, 7 million people. for what? war is a terrible thing. does that mean we should be defenseless and not defend our country? absolutely not. but we should not be eager or reckless or wanting for war. it should be the last resort, not the first resort. when it comes, you will be the generation that fights it. and it may not be a voluntary army, it may well be subscription -- conscription. it may well be a draft again, everyone of you, man and women, you have a choice. you have a choice who your leaders will be. and you must look and say, has it been a good thing? our involvement in the middle

east, we already had one iraq war. died, tens of thousands of others were wounded. a cost $1 trillion and will cost more money to take care of the veterans, as we should. but did it, something good? are we better off because saddam hussein is gone? i do not know. iran seem stronger now. saddam hussein was enemy of iran. to me, he was the counterbalance. he was a dictator. but he was a sunni, standing in the way of the expansion of the shiite government of iran. who is iraq's best ally? now that we have liberated them, iran. there are iranian troops in iraq. who is the next best ally? russia. who invited russia? iraq. recently, russia flew troops and equipment into syria. who invited them?

you may say bashar al-assad is a terrible person, we must do something about terrible people around the world. is a variation of evil on one side or the other? he said if they were walking down the street, he would not feed them. they are terrible, we should not give arms or food to assad. but it was on the other side of the equation? isis. they came to congress in 2013 and asked us for weapons for the islamic rebels fighting against assad. i asked them the question now the same question i said then, would not it be a great irony of the weapons we give to those rebels, we would be back to fight those rebels? that is what is going on now. you hear about isis in the news, but where do they get their weapons? from us, from our allies -- saudi arabia, quatar.

isis has $1 billion worth of u.s. humvees. they pay their soldiers with $1 billion of u.s. cash that they stole, as well. they have anti-tank weapons that we gave to other anti-islamic rebels but were quickly snatched up by isis. how did all of these weapons wind up with them, when we were giving them to the moderate rebels in syria? the cia put it this way, the only thing moderate about the rebels in syria is their ability to fight. so we gave them these weapons and they were ineffective, immediately snatched up by isis. they have our tanks, our anti-tank weapons. it is completely insane. in the last president of the bay, they said what would you do to defeat isis? i said maybe we should start by not arming them.

maybe we should not fund them. but the war over there is an utter and complete disaster, but there are evil people on both sides. are you willing to go and fight aside? assad?ts to fight for islamic rebels who also hate us? -sis hates everyone - christians particularly. if there's something you can conceive worth laying your life down for? perhaps there is a variation of evil on either side. we have to understand that when we have been involved in the middle east, it is often backfire. in libya, wore good idea or bad idea? who is a dictator, qaddafi. what we get in its place?

the arab spring, it turned into the air of winter. in the area of winter we got chaos. there is no government in libya, it is a failed state. one third of libya pledges allegiance to isis. inu have egypt an therefore weapons. neither side likes america. you think any side would recognize. gnize israel? not 11. onewou would. there are too many christians trapped in the middle, more christians in syria than any other place in the middle east than eight. but if you asked any christian in syria who they would rather have, which are al-assad -- the dictator they know -- or isis, the barbarian they're getting to

know, not one vote. everyone would say they pick bashar al-assad. but we go in and bomb both sides. there are people in my republican party want to bomb both sides. it is completely insane. we need better leadership. if one party better than the other? sometimes they're the same. you have hillary clinton want to have a no-fly zone and publicans wanting to do the same thing. the same nonsense, the same bad planning. the same thing that drug us into the first iraq war. who voted for the first iraq war? hillary clinton. she later on back peddled, like everything else. when she finds out something is unpopular, she flips to the other side. in syria, we said we're going to fund and train the syrian moderates. so we spent $250 million to train 60 of them. .ver $4 million per fighter you know what we did, we sent

them back into battle five at a time. who sends in an army of five people? they were captured, stripped of their weapons. there is another name for al qaeda in syria. why would be fighting with al qaeda? must do now, was ne they are two areas of radical islam. but we can live now with al qaeda. they were the people that attacked us on 9/11. later on, they are going to love us? we will do a big group hug? no, they will kill us we turn around. maybe there is no answer. there is another war going on in yemen. you have these rebels, and iran is supporting them. you have these other sunni muslims, and saudi arabia is supporting them. in washington, the war drums.

we have to get involved in yemen because iran is in yemen. the iranians are killing out data, maybe we should not fight for them. maybe sometimes there is not an answer, and maybe sometimes we just should not be involved. does that mean we would treat and sort of get behind our fortress in america, behind our oceans and do nothing? no, we do need to be engaged. some people say, you're talking about isolationism. no i am not. in some ways, they are talking about diplomatic isolationism. not talking to vladimir putin is a form of diplomatic isolationism. but you will have a choice. this is up to you, you are the ones to fight the war. think long and hard, whether you are ready to volunteer and fight another iraq war. think long and hard about whether it would be good or america and europe, and whether

you are up to the task. the customer vote will make a difference. it is also very expensive. people say, well, it is just a democrats' fault. we had the surrender's debt. republicans will tell you we borrow a million dollars a minute and it is all the democrats' fault. fault.oth parties' we need more civility in washington, people complain. just hold hands and sing. everything would be ok. the problem is the opposite. in washington, we have too much holding hands, too much kumbaya. the left says we need more money for domestic welfare and spinning. you know what happens? they get together and raise spending, it is both parties' fault.

they are stealing from your future. some say that the debt is costing us a million jobs a year. so you need to be aware of this, this is your future. they are borrowing from it. i think we need a different way, i think we need a way in which the government does not look at your phone records. the government does not put you in jail for nonviolent things like marijuana. and the government does not send you to wars that do not have purpose. i think we need to believe in the entire bill of rights. you hear republicans talk about the second amendment. i defend it as well. do not come into my house unannounced or you will lose. [applause] the fourth of them at said the government cannot come in your house without a warrant. the fifth amendment says you cannot take property without just compensation and du processe.

by regulatory edict, president obama is taking your land. 90% of the land is under federal jurisdiction. how do they justify this? they say if a migratory bird lands in the great lakes is now in your backyard, it is connected to the great lakes. therefore, we can regulate every parcel of land we want. the congress approve of this? is doing it on his own. we have is collapse of the separation of powers, the executive branch is consuming all of the power and your representative did not get a vote anymore. the six amendments says you have a right to a trial by jury. you say, who could possibly be opposed to that? an agent right that even precedes our dawn in english history, it goes back to greek and roman times. to be tried in front of a jury of your peers. we had a debate in 2011 on the senate floor over this, we debated back and forth over

whether an individual american citizen accused of a crime in the united states could be indefinitely detained. without a trial, without a lawyer. i was incredulous. i had in this debate, i do not want to name names, it was a senator from arizona -- [laughter] an americanou mean citizen to be snatched up and sent to guantanamo bay without a trial and lawyer? he said yes, if they are dangerous. i thought to myself, my goodness, who would give such as possibility to one person? and it begs the question, who is that person? the person that gets to decide who is going to be snatched up, who is innocent, guilty? i thought in that moment, of the times we have gotten it wrong. when we incarcerated 100,000 japanese during world war ii sibley because the way they look. when we wire cap the phones of severa civil rights