CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
June 1, 2011 – 11:13 p.m.
Some House Republicans Showing Signs of War Fatigue
By Frank Oliveri, CQ Staff
Although members of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee have long been staunch supporters of U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, that may be changing.
During a closed-door markup Wednesday, it was clear that some senior members of the panel are having second thoughts about the war.
According to accounts of the session provided by aides who would not speak for direct attribution, full Appropriations Chairman
In public, subcommittee members were somewhat more guarded.
“We’re spending a lot of money in Afghanistan,” Rogers said after the markup of the fiscal 2012 Defense appropriations bill. “I sometimes wonder what the real mission there is and the likelihood of a successful outcome. Like most Americans who have watched this war all these years, I find it is very difficult to measure with any degree of certainty the progress or lack of progress.”
The Republican majority’s focus on the Afghanistan War has been sharpened considerably by the GOP’s push to reduce federal spending and the budget deficit. But the behind-the-scenes debate is also focused on concern about U.S. success in Afghanistan and a desire to define the minimal acceptable outcome, aides said.
After 10 years of war and the deaths of more than 1,500 Americans in Afghanistan, senior aides are voicing concern that the Obama administration has not articulated its endgame and Congress has yet to insist on it.
And as Congress weighs large spending cuts, a senior Democratic aide said, lawmakers are asking: “Why are we doing this and not building a bridge in my district?”
The first clearly visible signs of growing concern among Republicans about the military role in Afghanistan emerged during last week’s House floor debate on the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill (
The amendment, rejected 204-215, drew more Republican votes — 26 — than its Democratic backers expected and exposed growing unease within the GOP.
Some lawmakers are concerned the United States has gone beyond its security objectives in Afghanistan by building up that nation’s economy at U.S. taxpayers’ expense, by trying to restructure Afghan society and by setting up a government that may not reflect the country’s political culture.
A GOP aide said such concerns are not new. But Democratic aides said Republicans have not previously insisted that either the George W. Bush administration or the Obama administration define a minimum standard for success.
A senior Democratic aide also noted that it took Democrats a number of years to begin asking tough questions about what the United States is doing in Afghanistan.
Some House Republicans Showing Signs of War Fatigue
Wednesday’s Defense spending markup ended without action on amendments related to Afghanistan, aides said. But the measure is expected to contain language expressing growing concern about the mission and the difficulty of gauging its success. Afghanistan-related amendments are likely to be offered when the bill reaches the House floor.