Michael Steele may have really stepped in it this time. He has questioned the war in Afghanistan (while mangling the facts in the process). He spoke against the war at a Republican party fundraiser in Connecticut:
“The McChrystal incident, to me, was very comical. And I think it’s a reflection of the frustration that a lot of our military leaders have with this Administration and their prosecution of the war in Afghanistan,” said Steele. “Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama’s choosing. This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.”
“It was one of those, one of those areas of the total board of foreign policy [“in the Middle East”? — Note: The audio is not quite clear in this section.] that we would be in the background, sort of shaping the changes that were necessary in Afghanistan as opposed to directly engaging troops,” Steele continued. “But it was the president who was trying to be cute by half by flipping a script demonizing Iraq, while saying the battle really should be in Afghanistan. Well, if he’s such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that’s the one thing you don’t do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right, because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed. And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan.”
Does Steele believe that the war began in 2009 when Obama became president? It is interesting to see Steele tie himself in knot in the simplistic thinking if Obama supports it, it must be bad. I would be cheering Steele if I really thought he was speaking about ending the Afghanistan war. Instead it’s all about being anti-Obama.
This may be too far for the Republican party. The calls for his head are growing. So far, Bill Kristol and Katon Dawson have gone public. It’s a bit ironic, isn’t it, that misappropriating RNC funds for lesbian bondage sex clubs didn’t cause Steele to lose his job but questioning Afghanistan probably will.