[Peace-discuss] Barbour breaks with rivals on Afghanistan, defense spending

[Robert Naiman]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0311/Barbour_breaks_with_rivals_on_Afghanistan_defense_spending.html

Barbour breaks with rivals on Afghanistan, defense spending

Here's a major moment in the nascent Republican presidential primary:
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour tonight became the first among the
leading Republican candidates to suggest that the United States reduce
its presence in Afghanistan and its spending on defense.

Barbour echoed the concerns of critics of the Afghan war effort when
asked by reporters in Iowa about American involvement in the conflict:

He also said that the U.S. should consider reducing the number of
troops in Afghanistan. "I think we need to look at that," he said when
asked if the U.S. should scale back its presence.

But he said his reasoning isn't financial.

"What is our mission?" Barbour said. "How many Al Qaeda are in
Afghanistan. ... Is that a 100,000-man Army mission?"

"I don't think our mission should be to think we're going to make
Afghanistan an Ireland or an Italy" or a Western-style democracy, he
said.

Barbour's leading Republican rivals have positioned themselves to
President Obama's hawkish right on a range of foreign policy issues.
They've also resisted calls from some associated with the Tea Party
movement for deep cuts to federal spending that would include defense
cuts. In fact, two of the candidates -- Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich
-- have in the past backed the Heritage Foundation's "4 percent for
Freedom" initiative, which would actually raise baseline defense
spending.

"Anybody who says you can't save money at the Pentagon has never been
to the Pentagon," Barbour said. "We can save money on defense and if
we Republicans don't propose saving money on defense, we'll have no
credibility on anything else."

--


-- 
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
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