The most ambitious Republican leaders have begun to clash with each other over the U.S. role in global affairs with an eye toward the 2016 race for president, AP reported. Several high-profile Republicans offered differing visions this week for U.S. leadership abroad, pitting the party's national security hawks against isolationist conservatives whose influence is growing in Republican politics. The race for the Republican nomination is wide open, while Hillary Clinton looks like an early front runner for the Democratic nomination. Largely an afterthought in the last presidential contest, foreign policy has become a place where prospective 2016 contenders can jockey for position before officially declaring plans to seek the White House. "I will admit to being different from other Republicans and Democrats," Sen. Rand Paul told a gathering of business executives in Washington on Tuesday, when he advocated for a smaller American footprint in the world and described Iraq as "a huge mess." "To those Republicans who love a Republican intervention, Iraq's worse off now," he said. "Do you think we're better or worse off with Hussein gone?" Addressing the same crowd the night before, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, whose brother George W. Bush ordered the invasion that toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2003, cited "a growing awareness that we can't withdraw from the world." -- SPA 21:29 LOCAL TIME 18:29 GMT تغريد
