Hear Hear:
The part about which Steele was obviously right is that Afghanistan is dangerous territory for powerful nations. A decade of Soviet occupation and a century of British oversight could not make a real country out of Afghanistan.
Steele is technically wrong that everyone who has ever tried a land war in Afghanistan over 1,000 years of history has failed. Beating the Afgans is easy – they’ve been taking beatings since Alexander showed up 2,300 years ago – but no one has succeeded in occupying them. But we still get Steele’s point.
The Afghan hawks of the Republican Party are calling for Steele to step down. They are of an opinion that America must do anything necessary to build a real nation in Afghanistan and, presumably, Pakistan in order to prevent terrorists from having safe havens.
Certainly politicizing a war to that degree that Steele did is a distasteful thing. Explaining to candidates how to use Obama’s failing war strategy to win races is as ugly as it was when Democrats exploited American losses in Iraq as part of their 2004 and 2006 election strategies.
But that’s not why Bill Kristol and Liz Cheney are calling for Steele’s head. They want him out because they understand that Obama’s mishandling of Afghanistan may turn Republicans away from the Wilsonian nation building of the second Bush term and put them on the path of the quasi-isolationism of their political forefathers.
Steele should go. His statements are yet more proof that he misunderstands the job of Republican National Committee chairman.
But he shouldn’t be sacked for having a dissenting view of the Afghan war. He should go because he expressed any view at all.
via Fire Michael Steele, but do it for the right reasons | Washington Examiner.
Amen and Amen.