Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., wondered aloud on Tuesday why the plan to transfer fighter jets from Poland to Ukraine for its war with Russia was discussed publicly, suggesting it was a major blunder by the Biden administration.
Paul's comments to Newsmax came after the Pentagon last week said it would not take possession of the Soviet-built MiG-29s as intermediary between the two Eastern European nations, days after it essentially endorsed the transfer along with saying it was considering replacing the planes with U.S.-made F-16s.
''I think the big mistake here was if you're going to help someone by arming them, or giving them weapons, announcing and debating it in public probably is not the best way to do it. You realize Poland touches Ukraine,'' Paul said on ''Eric Bolling: The Balance.''
''They could have easily delivered those weapons before anybody even mentioned it. They could have never said anything.
''They could have even denied that they did it. But they could have been shipped over on trucks before there was a big discussion. I'm not sure who initiated this, whether it was Poland or us. I think it was Poland. But it sounds like they wanted not to take responsibility for actually giving the MiGs.''
Paul suggested that a plan could have been devised to have Ukrainian pilots travel to Poland and fly the planes back to Ukraine, which would have been a much simpler and easier strategy.
Yet an announcement and then public discussion ensued, which he said intensified the risk.
''Let's transfer the planes to us so that Russia perceives it as the U.S. supplying air force, which makes it more likely that we have a World War III,'' he said. ''So now I think the simpler, more strategic better plan would have been to clandestinely have Poland ... should have just ship the planes across.''
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