When did we Republicans become the war party?

I bear some responsibility for moving the party of the parsimonious and prudent use of force to “all war all the time.” As a senior speechwriter for the Secretary of Defense and later for President Bush, I happily drafted many speeches blasting opponents of the war (or our policies) for timidity or naiveté on Afghanistan or Iraq—sometimes more brazenly than either of my bosses preferred. I believed the efforts underway to defund a war with troops on the ground was disgraceful and still do, and I had no problem savaging liberals in Congress or politically motivated organizations like Code Pink (which conveniently has all but disappeared from the headlines now that the wars they opposed are being overseen by a Democrat). But I didn’t consider the long-term consequences such rhetoric can have, and I certainly did not expect the vigorous and honorable defense of an embattled president to turn into a reflexive tar-and-feather session of critics, even fellow conservatives, who held a different view.

But that is what has happened. In 2003, for example, to the delight of the Bush White House, William F. Buckley’s National Review published an article entitled, “Unpatriotic Conservatives.” The piece, as one can deduce, attempted to strip away not only the patriotism but the conservative bona fides of anyone who opposed, or even raised uncomfortable questions, about the invasions of Afghanistan or Iraq. Notable conservatives such as Patrick Buchanan and Robert D. Novak among others were labeled defeatists who were “appeasing enemies” and “at war with America.” Ironically Mr. Buckley himself later questioned the wisdom of Bush’s “surge” into Iraq in 2007; in response, operatives in the Bush White House made efforts to ban the father of the modern conservative movement from talk radio programs. When the respected conservative columnist, George Will, argued in opposition to President Obama’s surge in Afghanistan, he too found himself at the wrong end of the Republican Party’s loyalty enforcers. Peter Wehner, the former Bush aide and designated henchman for that administration, attacked Will—once a confidante of Ronald Reagan—for a “loss of nerve,” drawing parallels to the defeated Japanese aboard the USS Missouri in World War II and, in perhaps the cruelest blow, to liberal activist Michael Moore. Even the chairman of the party has not been immune to having his loyalty questioned, as evidenced by Bill Kristol’s demand last year that he do the “patriotic” thing and resign his post once he criticized the deployment of more Americans into Afghanistan. Gov. Haley Barbour, a longtime Republican luminary, also met the sting of Kristol’s “you are with us or you are a coward” worldview for questioning our military goals in Afghanistan. The governor was denounced by Kristol as an “irresponsible” panderer lacking foreign policy “seriousness.”