Huntsman campaign jabs at Pawlenty over Afghanistan

CNN ^ | 06/27/2011 | Peter Hamby

[Hawk720]

Jon Huntsman's presidential campaign is firing back at a top aide to Republican rival Tim Pawlenty who suggested Monday that Huntsman's skepticism about the ongoing U.S. mission in Afghanistan is "isolationist."

In a Monday appearance on MSNBC, Pawlenty senior adviser Phil Musser previewed a "major" foreign policy speech that the former Minnesota governor is slated to deliver tomorrow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Musser said Pawlenty plans to "push back the isolationist strand that we are seeing in Republican Party," a remark that appeared to be aimed, in part, at Huntsman's call for swift troop reductions in Afghanistan.

Shortly after the TV appearance, Huntsman spokesman Tim Miller rejected Musser's insinuation and said the former Utah governor is following "the same basic foreign policy tenants that Ronald Reagan practiced."

Miller said Huntsman favors a rapid troop drawdown from Afghanistan but also wants to keep a strong counter-terrorism and intelligence operation in place proportionate to the threat.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

And I was starting to warm to Pawlenty.

Oh well he probably didn't have a chance anyway.

Back to the paw paw patch with Pawlenty.

[Venturer]

If wanting our young men, young heroes, out of that Afghani sh**hole is isolationist, count me in.

Young men losing their limbs to an enemy they never see.

Torch the place, torch the Poppy fields and leave.

[RC one]

If we haven’t struck paydirt in Afghanistan yet, I don’t think we’re going to. I could personally care less about that country or its problems at this point and; furthermore, I think it’s long past time to put the Defense back in the Department of Defense.

[truthfreedom]

yawn

[Brandonmark]

Perhaps we should look at the lessons learned from the Soviet military engagement in Afghanistan. There are many who believe that their prolonged involvement there helped to contribute to the downfall of the Soviet Union.

[Bean Counter]

[Graybeard58]

WW1 and WW2, were fought correctly, not that every tactic used was perfect but that we pounded the enemy without mercy to the extent of our ability and if there were civilian casualties, well so what, that’s war for you.

Now we try to fight politically correct wars.

If we’re not in it to win it, we should get the hell out and quit the spilling of our heroes blood.

[Venturer]

Amen brother.

Stop pussyfooting around with these people, or go home.

[Mariner]

"Pawlenty plans to "push back the isolationist strand that we are seeing in Republican Party,"

Silly RINO, stupid is for Democrats.

Pawlenty was my second choice until this.

We have absolutely no interest in Afghanistan to warrant 140,000 men and a billion dollars a day. Not to mention the lives lost and forever diminished.

We haven't had a real interest there since we deposed the Taliban in early 2002.

And don't even get me STARTED on Libya.

At least we had core strategic interests in Iraq.

[P-Marlowe]

We went in. We kicked their ass. We should have left 10 years ago.

Nation building in Islamic countries is a futile enterprise. Islam has no respect for human rights. All we are doing in Afghanistan is killing people and pissing off their families. The Islamists are breeding faster than we can kill them.

We need to leave and let them kill each other. They pose no risk to us when they are busy killing themselves.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Hawk720.