In a video statement posted to the Ron Paul Channel website on Thursday, the former representative for Texas and three-time presidential hopeful blamed decades of policy decisions made by both the right and the left for situation in Iraq, where Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants have seized no fewer than two major cities in the country's northern region this week.

"But the real irony here is that Iraq had no Al-Qaeda in it when we went into Iraq, because right after 9/11 a story was concocted and based on lies and misinformation that Al-Qaeda was in Iraq, that there was weapons of mass destruction — all those things that motivated the people and the propaganda to get the support, and Congress went along with it and started spending all that money," Paul said.