GOP chairman Steele tells donors Afghanistan ‘war of Obama’s choosing,’ strategy there to fail

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GOP chairman: Afghan ‘war of Obama’s choosing’

WASHINGTON — Republican chairman Michael Steele drew criticism from within his own party Friday, including calls to resign, after saying the 9-year-old commitment of U.S. troops to Afghanistan was a mistaken “war of Obama’s choosing.”

As criticism swelled, Steele issued a statement stressing his support for U.S. troops, but he did not acknowledge his factual error about a war launched by former President George W. Bush in response to the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A senior official in Bush’s administration said it would be impossible for the Republican National Committee to speak with credibility on foreign policy if Steele remained chairman.

For Democrats, looking at a difficult environment ahead of November’s midterm elections, the gaffe was an opportunity to test their strategy of attacking the GOP with its members’ own words.

Conservative Bill Kristol, writing for The Weekly Standard, was among the first to say Steele should resign.

“There are, of course, those who think we should pull out of Afghanistan, and they’re certainly entitled to make their case,” wrote Kristol, a consistent supporter of the Afghanistan war. “But one of them shouldn’t be the chairman of the Republican Party.”

In remarks captured Thursday on camera and posted online, Steele criticized President Barack Obama and his handling of the Afghan war and suggested the war cannot be won.

“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’s tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed,” Steele said. “And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan.”

Republican officials confirmed Steele made the comments at a Connecticut fundraiser, which was closed to the news media. The remarks, at odds with members of the Republican Party, were caught on camera and posted on the Internet.

“This was a war of Obama’s choosing,” Steele said. “This is not something the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.”

The United States and allies overthrew Afghanistan’s Taliban government after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. The war lagged as the United States shifted its focus to Iraq, but Obama shifted the focus to Afghanistan and planned to send 30,000 more troops to the country.

Steele did not say if he agreed with that increase.

Steele’s comments came as Obama’s new chief in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, arrived in the country Friday to take over the war. Obama last week dismissed his previous commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, because of disparaging remarks he and his aides made about administration officials in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

Steele called the dismissal “very comical” but said it shows the frustration members of the military have with Obama.

Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse said it was “simply unconscionable that Michael Steele would undermine the morale of our troops when what they need is our support and encouragement. Michael Steele would do well to remember that we are not in Afghanistan by our own choosing, that we were attacked and that his words have consequences.”

Conservative Bill Kristol, writing for The Weekly Standard, was among the first to say Steele should resign.

“There are, of course, those who think we should pull out of Afghanistan, and they’re certainly entitled to make their case,” wrote Kristol, a consistent supporter of the Afghanistan war. “But one of them shouldn’t be the chairman of the Republican Party.”

RNC spokesman Doug Heye said in a statement that Steele “clearly supports our troops but believes that success of the war effort in Afghanistan requires the ongoing support of the American people,” RNC spokesman Doug Heye said in a statement. “The responsibility for building and maintaining that strategy falls squarely on the shoulders of the president.”