Common wisdom would purport that those on the so-called right are and have always been hawkish and pro-war, while those on the proverbial left have always been the tree-hugging, peacenik, anti-war folks. For many conservatives, unfortunately, this is more or less correct. However, progressives have once again airbrushed their own past, which is about as anti-war as, well, war.
Much of this perception is relatively recent and primarily boils down to the Iraq War. The neoconservative warmongering was in full swing and for his part, Barack Obama gave a rather pleasant speech about his opposition to the war before it began. In his book, Obama elaborated,
What I sensed, though, was that the threat Saddam posed was not imminent, the Administrations rationales for war were flimsy and ideologically driven, and the war in Afghanistan was far from complete.[1]
Not terribly bad, at least for a politician.
Obama then proceeded to escalate the war in Afghanistan, go to war with Libya without Congressional approval, authorize airstrikes in Iraq as well as drone strikes in Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan while saber-rattling at Syria, Iran and the Ukraine. Even the American withdrawal from Iraq he oversaw which is now being ballyhooed by clueless neoconservatives was hardly different than the schedule George W. Bush had already agreed to.
Indeed, as far as Democratic, and ostensibly progressive, politicians were concerned, Obama was actually abnormal in his tepid opposition to the Iraq War. Senate Democrats voted in favor of letting George Bush go to war 25 to 20. Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Dianne Feinstein, and John Kerry all voted yes.
Furthermore, it wasnt long ago that the supposedly conservative Republicans were the ones against war and the supposedly liberal Democrats in favor of it. The big difference seemed to be nothing more than which partys politician was in office. For example, regarding the military action in Kosovo in 1999, Senate Republicans opposed the resolution giving Clinton authorization for military action 13 to 32 while the Democrats supported it 38 to 3. The 2000 Republican Party platform even criticized the Democrats for being too militaristic abroad. Only later, after almost unanimous support on both sides of the aisle for the war in Afghanistan, did the parties switch for Iraq. Well, sort of switched.
Progressive opposition to the Iraq War has been very much exaggerated. Both the left-liberal New York Times and Washington Post backed the war. Thomas Friedman, Christopher Hitchens, Jacob Weisberg, George Packer and Jonathan Chait all supported the invasion. Current Senator and liberal-favorite Al Franken noted that I believed Colin Powell. I believed the presumption that the President is telling the truth. So I thought, I guess we have to go to war. The popular liberal blogger Matt Yglesias explained his support for the war as having been because he adhered to the school of thought (popular at the time) which held that one major problem in the world was that the US government was unduly constrained in the use of force abroad by domestic politics. In other words, progressives werent getting as much war in the 90s as they would have preferred.
Sure, most of them eventually repudiated their former support (with the notable exception of Christopher Hitchens). But almost everyone outside of a few neoconservative perma-hawks have done the same. When Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher was asked in 2010 how many of his Republican colleagues thought the war was a mistake, he responded, I will say that the decision to go in, in retrospect, almost all of us think that was a horrible mistake. Being against the Iraq War now is kind of like being against slavery now. Its certainly the correct moral position, but its not a particularly brave or impressive stance to take.
And while there were more on the Left who opposed the Iraq War from the beginning, it must be noted that anti-war movement amongst progressives quickly dissipated as soon as Barack Obama was elected. And while some on the Left have opposed Obamas many interventions (albeit quietly), youll find more support than opposition amongst progressives for Obamas kinetic military actions. For example, Nancy Pelosi was pushing for a war with Syria while Progressive-favorite Elizabeth Warren wants to bomb Iraq. DNC Chair Michael Czin even channeled his inner-neoconservative by declaring that Rand Paul blames America for all the problems in the world because of Pauls (unfortunately short-lived) criticism of intervening in Iraq once again.
See the rest here:
Left and Right Agree: War Is Popular