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A military parade in the nations capital?The last military parade in Washington was in 1991, after our victory in the first Iraq War.

Though the martial image of high-stepping soldiers is not one I tend to associate with our nations Founders distrust of a standing Army, Im not against a victory celebration. So I propose we declare victory in Afghanistan, bring home our 14,000 troops and hold a victory parade.

We defeated the enemy in Afghanistan. We killed or captured the terrorists who planned, plotted, or aided in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. We killed the ringleader, Usama bin Laden. We disrupted the terrorists camps where they plotted and trained. We dislodged the Taliban government that aided and abetted bin Laden.

We just dont know how to appreciate a good thing. A big part of our foreign policy failures is not knowing when and how to declare victory. So, why not a parade? Bring the troops home and declare the victory that should have been declared years ago.

The only reason victory is elusive in Afghanistan is that presidents continue to have an impossible definition of victory. If victory is creating a nation where no real nation has ever existed, then no victory will ever occur.

If victory requires the disparate tribes and regional factions of Afghanistan to have more allegiance to a regime in Kabul than to their local tribal leaders, then victory will never come.

We spend about $50 billion a year in Afghanistan. When quizzed in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently, undersecretaries of Defense and State could not answer the most rudimentary of questions concerning the war.

How many Taliban fighters do we face?Blank faces for an answer. What percentage of the Taliban are unrepentant terrorists unwilling to negotiate?Blank faces again.

The Taliban now control a significant amount of Afghanistans real estate. Are the Taliban open to negotiating, considering that they appear to be winning? Blank faces again, but with perhaps a touch of remorse, knowing that there really is no possible military solution in Afghanistan.

The neocons are unaccustomed to nuance in victory. They seem to have learned some lesson about unconditional and total surrender when America dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II with the surrender of Japan, and they seem unwilling or unable to accept any other form of victory.

So, by all means, a parade yes! As long as it is a victory parade heralding an end to Americas longest war.

Republican Rand Paul represents Kentucky in the United States Senate.

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Sen. Rand Paul: Bring home our troops and, yes, throw a ...

Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky who recently was attacked by a neighbor while working on his lawn, said he believes the anger and polarization around the country fueled the assault.

Somebody who is going to attack you has to have something else wrong other than your yard, he said.

With the whole idea of the country being angry, over your yard or even the guy that shot us in the ball field There's just some people so angry, said the senator, who was on a baseball field over the summer when a gunman shot Rep. Steve Scalise, R-LA, and three others.

The neighbor, 58-year-old Rene A. Boucher of Bowling Green, Kentucky, admitted to the assault, but denied accusations that it may have been politically motivated, according to court documents. Boucher was charged with assaulting a member of Congress resulting in personal injury, a felony under federal law, the documents say.

I didn't know how badly I was hurt in the beginning, Paul said of the injury. To describe how much it hurt, I couldn't sit up. I had to have help to sit up for the first four or five weeks, he said. Who knew you had to have armed protection to mow your yard?"

He was wearing hearing protection when he was attacked from behind, he said. The attack ultimately left him with five broken ribs, three of which will heal in a crooked fashion.

Paul also discussed news of day with the co-hosts, including the release of a Republican memo accusing the Department of Justice of political bias. Paul appeared just minutes before the memo was posted online by the House Intelligence Committee but voiced his support for its release.

If you look at my position, I had the same position under President Obama that I have under President Trump and that is the power to listen to people's conversation, your private conversations are private and nobody else's business and the government should not reveal that, Paul said, prior to the memo's release.

The memo was first drafted by the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif, amd is critical of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for his role in renewing a surveillance warrant on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page after Trump took office.

The president approved its release on Friday, despite a statement Wednesday in which the FBI expressed "grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy."

Paul falls on the side of privacy advocates, he said, and is worried about information getting into the wrong hands.

The worrisome thing is the government has all of your information. Do you want them releasing it willy-nilly against their enemies? he said. And think who the enemies are. They're people who are minorities of opinion, minorities of color. People who have a lifestyle that other people think is unacceptable. Do you want the government or the majority to be able to selectively target their enemies?

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Rand Paul voices support for memo, citing privacy rights ...

Mark Seliger for TIME

When the Tea Party movement wanted to send a message to the Senate in 2010, it elected a clear-sighted eye doctor from the Bluegrass State. In a D.C. too often defined by the venal equivocations of a permanent political class more interested in consolidating its own power than in upholding the Constitution or defending the common good, Senator Rand Paul is a voice of reason awakening the public to what must be done to restore our prosperity and preserve the blessings of liberty for future generations. His brand of libertarian-leaning conservatism attracts young voters, and recently he inspired the nation with his Capraesque filibuster demanding basic answers about our use of drones. I sent him some caribou jerky from Alaska to help keep up his strength on the Senate floor. Theres more where that came from for this bold Senator with 20/20 vision willing to take a stand for liberty.

Palin is a former governor of Alaska

Next Noynoy Aquino

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Rand Paul | TIME 100: The 100 Most Influential People in ...

Authorities in Kentucky released audio of Sen. Rand Paul's 911 call Monday, in which the Republican reported that he "was assaulted by my neighbor" this past November.

Paul, who can be heard breathing heavily on the audio, tells the dispatcher that the incident is "not a life-or-death thing, but I'd like to have a police car come by." He gives his full name, Randal Paul, when asked by a second dispatcher and tells her that he was attacked "in my yard, while I was mowing the grass."

The audio was made public on the same day it was revealed that federal prosecutors would seek a 21-month prison sentence for the man accused of attacking Paul outside his Bowling Green, Ky., home Nov. 3.

In comments to police, Rene Boucher indicated the attack on Paul was not politically motivated, according to a court document filed by prosecutors. Instead, it had to do with a dispute over yard maintenance that boiled over.

Boucher said he saw Paul stacking more brush onto an existing pile and had "had enough." Boucher made a "running tackle" of Paul in the lawmaker's yard, it said.

The document said Paul "did not see the attack coming until the last second, and was unable to brace for the impact."

Rene Boucher told authorities he had 'had enough' after Paul stacked brush onto an existing pile.(AP)

Paul suffered several broken ribs in the attack and later developed pneumonia. Paul has since said he's recovering well from the attack.

Boucher has been charged with assaulting a member of Congress as part of a federal plea agreement that surfaced last Friday.

While federal prosecutors will recommend a nearly two-year prison sentence, Boucher's attorney said Monday he will argue that his client should not serve any jail time. Attorney Matt Baker said his client is "a good and a decent person" who made a "big mistake."

"Everyone needs to remember, first and foremost, that this is a dispute between two neighbors," Baker told the Associated Press in a phone interview. "It was not and has never been politically motivated. And if this very same incident had occurred between two private persons, neither of whom were a congressman or a senator, we wouldn't be in federal court."

Boucher is "very meticulous" about how he maintains his yard, while Paul takes "a much different approach" to the upkeep of his property, Baker said last week.

The federal charge against Boucher carries a punishment of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The plea deal also raises the prospect that Boucher a retired anesthesiologist in his late 50s will pay restitution to Paul.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Audio released of Rand Paul 911 call after neighbor's ...

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul brushed off suggestions that President Trump holds a racial animus against Haitians because he once supported Pauls trip to the Caribbean nation to do eye surgeries on poor Haitians.

Paul said on NBCs Meet The Press Sunday that Trump donated money to a medical mission trip Paul took before he was president. Paul did about 200 surgeries on Haitians that allowed them to see while he was on the trip, and he said thats evidence Trump isnt prejudiced against the country.

It is unfair to draw conclusions from a remark that I think wasn't constructive is the least we can say and I think it is unfair to all of a sudden, paint him, well, he's a racist, when I know for a fact he cares very deeply about the people in Haiti because he helped to finance a trip, we were able to give vision back for 200 people in Haiti, Paul said.

The comments come days after Trump reportedly said Haiti and some African nations are shithole countries.

That remark has led to an onslaught of Democratic lawmakers calling Trump a racist. Paul said thats not going to help Congress come to a deal on immigration.

There are a lot of questions that this ultimately intersects with policy, and the only thing I regret from all of this, other than I think some people in the media have gone completely bonkers with, you know, just ad hominem on the president, I want to see an immigration compromise and you can't have an immigration compromise if everybody is out there calling the president a racist, he said.

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Rand Paul: Trump isn't prejudiced against Haiti because he ...