Politics

George Will calls on Republicans to be critical of all U.S. military actions

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
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Back in 2009, Washington Post columnist George Will shocked a lot of people when he came out against U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. Since then, others on the right have spoken out against that war effort and it begs the question – how would an anti-war movement play out in the race for the 2012 Republican nomination?

On radio host Laura Ingraham’s Tuesday show, Will said Obama’s latest endeavor against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi is another demonstration of the erosion of power in the legislative branch.

“Well this is a moment that reveals in my judgment the radical insufficiency of the Republican choice right now,” Will said. “Republicans just now and since the 2010 election have been rightly making constitutional points about the expansion of the government and the government slipping the leash of the constitution – particularly, the executive branch – achieving with regulation and its vast discretion. What it cannot achieve legislatively through the first branch of government, which is Congress. At this very moment then, it seems to me incumbent among these Republicans not be constitutionally punctilious about unilateral absolutely unfettered presidential war-making, including war-making on behalf of humanitarian interventionism.”

Will suggested keeping an eye on Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who recently advised the GOP not to automatically go along with any “military undertakings,” as a potential 2012 presidential candidate who might be more open to question American military interventions.

“I would like to see someone and the one who is going to have to come closest and I’m waiting to see what more he has to say on this, is Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi, who has gingerly and tentatively questioned the nature and proportionality of our effort in Afghanistan,” Will said. “It’s time for the Republicans to not be simply a background chorus for whatever military undertakings the United States is in, but to be more hopefully critical.”

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