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Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul,who recently assailed President Obamafor not acting more decisively against Islamic militants in Syria, sounded more like his old, cautious self after the presidents speech Wednesday night calling for air strikes.

Mr. Paul even agreed with Mr. Obamas statement that the Islamic State, known ISIL or ISIS, is not Islamic.

I think there was one important point that he was making about them not being Islamic or a true form of true Islam, Mr. Paul said on Fox News, pushing back on criticism of the speech from interviewer Sean Hannity. Im all in for saying we have to combat ISIS, but also the ultimate war, the long war, whoever knows how long ultimately, is going to need allies from civilized Islam.

In his speech, Mr. Obama had said that ISIS is not Islamic, adding that: No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISILs victims have been Muslim.

In his Fox comments, Mr. Paul also argued that past U.S. intervention in the Middle East has created chaos and fomented the spread of radical Islam, instead of squarely blaming Mr. Obama for the current crisis, as some of his fellow Republicans have done.

The nuanced remarks by Mr. Paul the most resistant voice to foreign intervention in the 2016 field contrasted with the no-holds-barred attack against Mr. Obama by a possible GOP rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. He called the presidents speech fundamentally unserious in a Fox News interview.

In a sign of his intention to position himself as a foil to Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 2016, Mr. Cruz repeatedly referred to the Obama-Clinton foreign policy.

On one point Messrs. Cruz and Paul were wholeheartedly in agreement: The president is violating the constitution by failing to seek permission from Congress to wage war. Mr. Obama has said he has the authority to take military action in Syria.

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Rand Paul Sounds Cautious Notes After Obamas ISIS Speech