Stavroula Pabst
They
may be a minority, but these conservatives are bucking the old guard and
warning Trump of pending disaster
Even as polling indicates that a
majority of Trump voters don't want to go to war with Iran on behalf of Israel,
it’s been difficult to change GOP minds on Capitol Hill.
But that doesn’t mean there
aren’t strong conservative voices trying to do just that.
Indeed, some Republicans have
come out swinging against the prospects of the U.S. joining Israel in their
attacks against Iran. “This is not our war,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky)
proclaimed in an X post where he invited colleagues to support his recently introduced
War Powers Resolution, which would prevent the U.S. from engaging in any
“hostilities” against Iran if passed. “But if it were, Congress must decide
such matters according to our Constitution.”
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.)
likewise called Republicans pushing conflict with Iran “war pimps.”
“I just don’t see American boys
and girls going to a faraway land that many of us couldn’t even find on a map,”
Burchett told CNN’s John Berman. “We do not need a three-front war in our
lifetime right now. I just don’t think that’s the route to go. There’ll be room
for debate, but I think we ought to let the president do his negotiating
skills. That’s what I elected him to do.”
Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a
vocal supporter of Israel, nonetheless also voiced concern about the U.S.
getting dragged into conflict. He told Manu Raju, CNN’s Chief Congressional
Correspondent, that Israel could act in its own interests. But, he explained,
“it’s a very different thing for us to then say, ‘We are going to offensively,
affirmatively go strike Iran or insert ourselves into the conflict.’ That to me
is — that's a whole different matter…I'd be real concerned about that.”
“I don't want us fighting a war,”
Hawley said. “I don't want another Mid-east war.”
Along similar lines, Sen. Rand
Paul (R-Ky.) said that “it’s not the U.S.’s job to be involved” in Israel’s war
with Iran on NBC’s Meet the Press.
And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
(R-Ga.) warned that other conservatives’ hawkishness over war with Iran could
“fracture” the MAGA movement. “Americans want cheap gas, groceries, bills, and
housing. They want affordable insurance, safe communities, and good education
for their children. They want a government that works on these issues,” Greene
wrote on X Tuesday.
“Considering Americans pay for
the entire government and government salaries with their hard earned tax
dollars, this is where our focus should be. Not going into another foreign
war.”
But while some Republicans want
to put a red light on the lurch to intervention, many others are pushing
explicitly to participate in it. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D,), for example, said
he would support a U.S. decision to strike Iran, or otherwise "assist
Israel in getting the job done."
Iran “pledged to wipe out the
United States of America. I prefer not to let them get here…I prefer preemptive
prevention of war rather than having to end one after it gets to our soil,
right?,” Cramer asserted.
"Either you want [Iran] to
have a nuclear weapon, or you don't," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told
reporters this week. "And if you don't, if diplomacy fails, you use
force."
Could support for war come back
to bite?
Observers tell RS that lawmakers
pushing for war are holding onto dated foreign policy positions — even if such
positions are increasingly diverging from the conservative base.
"Most Republican
officeholders have not developed a foreign-policy outlook of their own. They
take their bearings from what the old-guard conservative movement used to say
and from what President Trump says now," Daniel McCarthy, syndicated columnist
and editor of Modern Age journal, told RS. "It was similar in 2003, when
most Republicans went along with George W. Bush’s Iraq War.”
As Jim Antle, Executive Editor of
The Washington Examiner, told RS: “Congressional GOP hasn't caught up [with
their base]. [There are] only small numbers of populists and libertarians.
Old-school moderates are almost all gone. Those are the restraint-friendly
elements of the party.”
"Also Trump is the main
man," he added. "If he says bomb, we bomb. If he says peace, we are
flipping the peace sign."
In comments to RS, McCarthy
highlighted the story of the late Republican Congressman Walter Jones, who
realized later in the Iraq War his previous support of the conflict was
disastrous for his constituents, a military-heavy district in North Carolina. He
was politically sidelined in Congress for his dovish change of heart.
“(He) did exactly what they are
doing now. He went along with the zombie-like shuffle to war; he even coined
the term 'freedom fries,'" McCarthy said. “But later he was ashamed of how
easily he’d been led into supporting a policy that was disastrous for the
country and his district. Jones would be horrified if he were alive to see his
fellow legislators making the same mistakes. They can avoid that by learning
from Jones’s experience.”
Jones’ career suffered because he
recanted his Iraq war support. But McCarthy supposes that Republicans who are
hesitant to speak against war with Iran might do well to consider the political
risks of not speaking out against it.
“Republican officeholders too
often believe there’s safety in a crowd, and it’s better to be wrong in a group
than to be right on your own," McCarthy said. "But the public turned
against the whole party because of Bush’s wars, and anything like a repeat of
them will turn the force of populism against the GOP."
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