Assemblyman backs Steele

From Steven Greenhut: Assemblyman Chris Norby, R-Fullerton, has weighed in on the latest controversy over Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele, who has gotten himself into some hot water with GOP war hawks over a sensible statement Steele made about Afghanistan. Said Steele: “If he [Obama] is such a student of history, has he not understood the one thing you don’t do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? Everyone who has tried over a thousand years has failed and there are reasons for that.”

This is obvious stuff. There’s nothing the slightest bit wrong about that statement — and it’s something old-school conservatives and libertarians have long understood. Norby, who comes from the small-“l” wing of the Republican Party, wrote a blog post for Friends for Fullerton’s Future making this point: “It is Obama who decided to send an additional 30,000 ground troops. Why should Republicans blindly support this vague and open-ended commitment? Would Reagan have done so? He wisely decided against a similar quagmire in Lebanon, which is far smaller than Afghanistan. Bush Sr. was equally prudent in his use of ground forces only for clear and achievable objectives.”

Ironically, many Republicans are now closely allied with our nation-building liberal president. I still recall when George W. Bush called for a “humbler” foreign policy in his debate with Al Gore. That was a slap at the Clinton administration’s Wilsonian nation-building schemes. It’s why I voted for Bush in 2000. Of course, Bush became the biggest Wilsonian after 9/11 and the GOP has mostly stayed on board the Clinton path. But some Republicans echo the old limited-government, limited-intervention worldview. It’s nice to see one of them speak out for a change. Norby serves in the state Assembly, of course, but it is his party and Steele is his chairman, so this was a wholly appropriate thing to do.