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DAVENPORT, Iowa The first Republican debate of the 2016 presidential campaign, said Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, will be between him and people who want to blow up the world. The showdown Thursday night will pit him against opponents who will send half a million of your sons and daughters back to Iraq. He vowed that he will ask his Republican presidential rivals, face to face, whether they want to always intervene in every civil war around the world.

I want to be known as the candidate whos not eager for war, who thinks wars the last resort, Paul said on a weekend swing through Iowa. When we fight, we fight to win, but much of our involvement has led to consequences that made us less safe. Youll see that come into sharp distinction.

Pauls approach almost ensures that there will be a vigorous debate Thursday night over foreign policy, an issue that many Republicans see as a major distinction between them and Democrats. It also marks a shift back toward Pauls roots and, he hopes, a winning coalition of voters after months in which he seemed to slide toward a more traditional Republican foreign policy as the Islamic State and other global dangers grew more worrisome.

The libertarian wing of the Republican base has been waiting and waiting and waiting for Paul to do that. Any of the declared candidates can talk tax cuts. A few, such as former Texas governor Rick Perry, can match Paul on criminal-justice reform. They all want to defund Planned Parenthood. But no one else is positioned to attack a generation of intervention in the Middle East. Libertarians want the Rand Paul who mocked former vice president Richard B. Cheney and neoconservatives to show up at the debates.

Hes the only candidate of the 15 who has a position like this, said Michael Hager, 23, after seeing Paul speak in a suburb of Chicago over the weekend. I figure, hell, why not swing for the fences on this? Why not separate himself from the pack?

Pauls potential base is larger and talkier than anyone elses, built on the legacy of his fathers 2008 and 2012 presidential runs. When Rand Paul has moved away from that Ron Paul legacy, he has walked into a wall of flames.

He co-signed a letter sent by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and other senators to the Iranian mullahs, and he offered an amendment that would have upped defense spending with offsets in cuts to foreign aid. Paul insisted that he did it to forge peace. His reward: columns, blog posts, and podcasts that branded him a sellout.

He sides with Bibi and other death merchants, wrote longtime Paul ally Lew Rockwell, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The really naive people are the ones who thought that by doing things like this, Rand would win over the people who despise him, said Tom Woods, the co-author of Ron Pauls best-selling books.

Rand Pauls Iowa message to the critics: Hey, lay off and wait for Thursday. Im one of the few Republicans who has a litany of people whose job is to be full-time critics of mine, Paul said. Nobody else seems to have as much sniping going on. But I think the debates will put things in sharp relief.

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As debate looms, Rand Paul sees a chance to be the GOP ...