Grover Norquist is Making Sense on Afghanistan

Edward Kenney
Afghanistan Study Group Blogger

Tuesday night at a private salon dinner, Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative think tank, delivered his thoughts on the Afghanistan War.  Below are some of the highlights of Mr. Norquist’s presentation.

The Good: Norquist described a conservative foreign policy vision to illustrate how far we have strayed from the policies of some former conservative presidents.  He reminded the audience that Reagan, when faced with the bombing of the Marines’ barracks in Beirut, pulled the troops out of Lebanon; he certainly did not engage in or commit to long-term nation building exercises.  Norquist also suggested that behind closed doors, there is a lot of skepticism about the neo-conservative agenda.  He related an anecdote in which he asked Capital Hill staffers whether their Republican bosses would agree that staying in Iraq was a mistake.  All of them said, yes.

Norquist articulated some of the weaknesses of the current strategy.  He pointed out that the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan have occupied and distracted the United States.  If one fist is in the “tar baby Iraq”, the other fist is in “tar baby Afghanistan,” there are no hands left to tackle Iran, Korea, China or any of the other threats facing this country.

Norquist reminded the audience that we have strayed from the classic conservative foreign policy doctrine, which focuses foreign policy resources in areas of critical national security interests.  During the 1990s Republicans consistently criticized Clinton for the military interventions in Somalia and the Balkans, and in 2000, Bush promised that he would not engage in “nation-building”.  And yet here we are nation building in Afghanistan with strong support from the Republican caucus.  Part of the problem, argues Norquist, has undoubtedly been a political atmosphere, where opponents of the war effort are consistently caricatured as being against the troops.  Exhibit A, says Norquist, is the recent spat over RNC chairman Michael Steel’s assertion that Afghanistan was a war of Obama’s choosing.

The Bad: Norquist said the goal of the dinner was to jumpstart a dialogue about U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan, but when pushed to openly criticize the current war policy, he deflected.  The problem is, unless conservative political leaders are willing to openly oppose the war, there is very little hope for constructive dialogue.   On the question of military budget, prominent Republicans argued that cuts should be “on the table”.  No Republican leader has taken a similar stand with regards to Afghanistan.  The leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination have likewise been silent.  Norquist could have done his party and the country a favor by taking a firmer position on the war.  He did not and that is disappointing; however, his willingness to discuss this issue and open debate among the center-right is definitely a good development.

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