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WASHINGTON -- "Nation-builder" probably isn't a term Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) would use to describe himself. The libertarian-leaning senator has built a reputation on his reluctance to intervene abroad, a point he emphasizes as he travels the country ahead of a likely White House bid in 2016.

But on Wednesday, two weeks after telling a crowd of conservatives that Republicans should give up the concept of nation building abroad, Paul called on the United States to ship arms to the Kurds with a promise to build them a nation: Kurdistan.

Part of the problem is the Kurds arent getting enough arms, Paul told Breitbart News. The Kurds are the best fighters. The arms are going through Baghdad to get to the Kurds and theyre being siphoned off and theyre not getting what they need. I think any arms coming from us or coming from any European countries ought to go directly to the Kurds.

He then endorsed redrawing the borders of Iraq and Syria to form a new country, exposing as he did the gaps in his understanding of the region.

"I would draw new lines for Kurdistan and I would promise them a country," Paul said.

I think [the Kurds] would fight like hell if we promised them a country. Its a little easier to say than it is to actually make it happen, because in order to actually draw a new country, youd have to have the complicity of Turkey and probably Iraq a little bit as well, the senator added. There really is no Syria to be complicit with, but there is just a little piece of Syria -- Kobani, and in there is predominantly Kurdish. I think if you did that and could get peace between the Kurds and the Turks, and then the Turks would actually fight if the Kurds would give up any claim to Turkish territory.

This proposal is, as Paul noted, easier said than done. In reality, it would make little sense for either of the two Kurdish groups who have fought the Islamic State with U.S. support: the Iraqi Kurds, who pushed the extremist group out of their autonomous region last year, or the Syrian Kurds, who withstood a months-long Islamic State assault on their town of Kobani.

The Iraqi Kurds have harbored dreams of independence for decades. They came closer to that goal when the U.S. imposed a no-fly zone over their part of Iraq in 1991 to protect them from then-President Saddam Hussein. They solidified control over their autonomous region after the U.S. toppled Hussein's government in 2003. But they remain keenly aware that Washington has not endorsed full independence for their region. So instead of seeking statehood, they have moved, with strong U.S. backing, to settle their differences with the central Iraqi government -- at least for now.

Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the Iraqi Kurdish region's representative to the U.S., told reporters at a late February briefing that her government does not plan to pursue independence in the midst of the war against the Islamic State. It remains a long-term goal, she said.

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Rand Paul, Longtime Foe Of Nation Building, Is Ready Now ...