Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Sunday that it would be a "mistake" to get involved militarily in Syria, referencing a young John Kerry to make his point.

"I wish he remembered more of how awful war is," Paul said on "Meet the Press" of the now-Secretary of State Kerry.

Paul even used a common Kerry refrain — one he used frequently during his 2004 presidential run — to suggest that he wouldn't vote to approve a Congressional resolution for military action.

"How can you ask a man to be the first one to die for a mistake?" Paul said, twisting a quote Kerry gave before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971 on the Vietnam War, when he was the face of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

Back then, in a preview of the role he would come to play in the Senate, Kerry challenged the committee and said, “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?”

Paul has become the face of libertarian, anti-interventionist Republicans in Congress this year, beginning with his high-profile filibuster of John Brennan's nomination over the Obama administration's policy on drone strikes.

For his part, Kerry appeared on "Meet the Press" just before Paul, where he made the case for military action. He said that the U.S. has evidence that the Bashar al-Assad regime has used sarin gas, comparing Assad to Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein.

"Bashar al-Assad now joins the list of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein have used these weapons in time of war," Kerry said. "This is of great consequence to Israel, to Jordan, to Turkey, to the region, and to all of us who care about enforcing the international norm with respect to chemical weapons."

