{"id":36378,"date":"2020-11-18T07:38:26","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T15:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=36378"},"modified":"2020-11-18T07:38:26","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T15:38:26","slug":"gop-senator-josh-hawley-bucks-trend-backs-afghanistan-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2020\/11\/18\/gop-senator-josh-hawley-bucks-trend-backs-afghanistan-exit\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Senator Josh Hawley Bucks Trend, Backs Afghanistan Exit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/\">The American Conservative<\/a>:<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., allied himself with the White House and those calling for a swift exit from Afghanistan on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I write to express my support for President Trump&#8217;s plan for the prompt withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan,&#8221; Hawley <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawley.senate.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/2020-11\/Hawley-Letter-Acting-Sec-Def-Miller-Afghanistan-Troop-Withdrawal.pdf\">wrote<\/a> to the acting Defense secretary, Christopher C. Miller. &#8220;The costs of the war in Afghanistan continue to mount, and they are borne disproportionately by working Americans. &#8230; For these reasons, majorities of Americans, including veterans of the war itself, have long called for an end to the war in Afghanistan. Yet most of our nation&#8217;s policymakers have ignored them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hawley&#8217;s signaling is significant because it runs counter to the political assault on the Hill by Republicans to stop President Trump&#8217;s plot to exit from the troubled theater in his administration&#8217;s closing days. On Monday, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell expressed, in no uncertain terms, his vociferous opposition to a further drawdown: &#8220;A rapid withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan now would hurt our allies and delight the people who wish us harm.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>McConnell was joined by Michael McCaul, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, among others, in expressing his displeasure with recent developments in President Trump&#8217;s national security team. An embattled Trump has suddenly cleaned house at the Pentagon, in a maneuver widely described as essentially outlaw. <\/p>\n<p>Trump&#8217;s moves at DoD are seen as part score-settling &#8211; and part delivering on a major campaign promise. If he sticks the landing, Trump&#8217;s acolytes insist drawing down further in Afghanistan cracks the door open still wider for a potential 2024 repeat run. <\/p>\n<p><b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/state-of-the-union\/hawley-bucks-trend-backs-afghanistan-exit\/\">Read the rest of the article<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From The American Conservative: Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., allied himself with the White House and those calling for a swift exit from Afghanistan on Tuesday. &#8220;I write to express my support for President Trump&#8217;s plan for the prompt withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan,&#8221; Hawley wrote to the acting Defense secretary, Christopher C. Miller. &#8220;The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":483,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-36378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":"By siding with Trump\u2019s push to leave the country, the rising star senator distinguishes himself on the right."},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/483"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36378"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36380,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36378\/revisions\/36380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36378"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=36378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}