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WASHINGTON Is Hillary Clinton a war hawk? Thats what Rand Paul said over the weekend. The Kentucky senator made the reference while contrasting his less-interventionist approach to foreign policy to that of the former secretary of State.

During a segment on NBC's Meet the Press, Senator Paul accused Mrs. Clinton of fighting her own war, Hillarys war," though he didnt specify which conflict that was, exactly. Afghanistan? Iraq? Then he said that if he were the GOP presidential nominee, he could attract a number of independents and even some Democrats worried that a gung-ho Clinton would involve the nation in another Middle Eastern conflict.

If you wanna see a transformational election in our country, let the Democrats put forward a war hawk like Hillary Clinton, and youll see a transformation like youve never seen, said Paul, interviewed while in Guatemala on a charity medical mission.

This comment reflects a number of the most interesting aspects of the developing 2016 presidential race, in our view. It s a nexus where political tactics and strategy for both parties intersect.

First, the GOP in general is likely to try and make Clinton the face of Obama foreign policy. Pauls not the only possible Republican standard-bearer to bring the subject up. On Monday Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida slammed her on this, saying she was responsible for many of the nations current diplomatic problems.

She was the secretary of State, the chief foreign policy officer of the Obama administration, at a time when it is now universally accepted that his policy is a fiasco, said Senator Rubio at a fundraiser for GOP candidates in South Carolina.

The strategy here is obvious: Obama is unpopular, and the GOP wants to tie Clinton to him as tightly as possible. She will try to create space between herself and her old boss and present herself as her own person. Thats all Politics 101.

But the war hawk jab is a back flip, a flank attack, a way to try and accomplish this mission from an unusual direction.

Clinton surely would not describe herself thusly. But the fact is she has taken numerous positions on international questions that are more forceful than those of Rand Paul or, in some instances, President Obama.

Washington Post political analyst Chris Cillizza runs through some of these in his Fix blog. As a senator, she voted to authorize the Iraq War. She supported the troop surge in Afghanistan in 2009. Shes argued for a more aggressive US stance in Libya than current policy.

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Is Hillary Clinton a 'war hawk,' as Rand Paul says? (+video)