A newfound restlessness about the decadelong war in Afghanistan has reached the highest levels of the House Republican leadership, sparking serious concerns about war funding and murmurs about troop withdrawal — a sign that the GOP may be undergoing a shift in thinking about overseas intervention.
The new movement comes not just from conservative tea party members with an isolationist streak but from mainstream conservatives and moderates. …
Yet the list of Republicans ready for a change in Afghanistan is surprising — and growing.
It includes Republicans— like Reps. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, John Campbell of California and John Duncan of Tennessee — who joined a handful of Democrats and anti-war North Carolina GOP Rep. Walter Jones in sending a letter to President Barack Obama this week urging him to “re-examine our policy of nation building in Afghanistan.”
Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh, a conservative Republican and tea party favorite, said he is not even sure that the war in Afghanistan is helping American efforts in the broader war on global terror.
“I come from a swing district,” Walsh said, “a lot of blue-collar folks, and these are the most patriotic Americans in the world, and they’re wondering what we’re doing. There is a shift.”
This last comment highlights a problem faced by our largely Jacksonian public in responding to the Wilsonian adventures of our elites — when presented with a fait accompli of American troops fighting abroad, the public swallows its doubts, out of both solidarity with our soldiers and disgust at the kind of people they’re fighting against.
One way to avoid perpetual war might be to insist on minding our own business in small matters before they grow into large matters. One recent example of this: the State Department has called for the rejection of an “odious” bill being debated in the Ugandan parliament that would punish homosexual activity with death. The bill is, of course, odious, but the working of Uganda’s parliament is none of our business. Neither is the gangster regime in Burma. Or Somalia. Or Libya. Or Albania. Or Congo.