If the latest conflict ongoing in Iraq wasn’t bad enough, many Republican politicians appear to be using this crisis for their own benefit in challenges to the Democratic president’s cautious stance. Warhawk Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, both up for re-election this year, keep calling for a return of troops to re-engage in combat, while members of the Bush Administration, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, are hitting national media for self-justification of the war they started.
A recent Public Policy Polling study finds that the GOP should just keep its mouth shut, though. Over two-thirds of the population (67 percent) thinks the U.S. should limit its involvement to simply providing supplies and intelligence aid, while 74 percent openly oppose sending combat troops to Iraq.
When asked to choose between Obama’s stay-out stance versus John McCain’s ?we never should have left? credo, 54 percent of the population stand behind the president; only 28 percent of respondents take the side of the Arizona senator.
These public opinions are nonpartisan, as well. A majority of Republican respondents agree that the U.S. should only provide supplies and keep the military out. A distinct plurality of 49 percent is standing behind the Democratic president’s stance, too, while only 30 percent of Republican voters agree with their party’s 2008 presidential nominee. A majority of independent voters hold these same stances, as well.
Wouldn?t it make sense, then, for the Republican Party and its officials to back down? As John Ullyot, a Republican campaign strategist, told The Hill:
Whenever the conversation is on Iraq, it’s not good news for Republicans. That’s not helped at all over the last week by a bunch of people who we hadn’t heard from in several years ? Republican figures associated with Iraq from the Bush administration ? who were suddenly back on major shows discussing the current state of affairs in Iraq. ? It was not a helpful reminder. They probably should have stayed off the shows.
Maybe they should stay off the ballots in this election year, too. ?If that many Americans of all political persuasions sharply disagree with them, it might cost those warhawk Republicans an office or three in 2014.
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