Earlier this week, I wrote a piece suggesting that Americans who want to end the war in Afghanistan ought to consider supporting former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson in the GOP primary, as a means of raising the profile and impact of Republican sentiment against the war. I noted while according to the Washington Post, 56% of Republican voters want to see a substantial withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan this summer - half of Republicans don't think the war's worth fighting - you can count on your fingers the Republicans in the House who have supported any initiative to press against indefinite continuation of the war, and so far not a single Republican in the Senate has done anything against the war. I suggested that if Republicans critical of the war rise in the primary, that could move the debate in Washington and end the war sooner, because the so far near-monolithic support of the war by Republican officials has been a key political cause of the continuation of the war.
On Wednesday, the Washington Post noted that polling data suggests that Republican candidates who oppose the war could rise in the GOP primary:
"I'd say one of the big 'surprises' coming up in the GOP primary will be the lack of Republican voter support for the war in Afghanistan," said Republican strategist Mike Murphy. "I think we have hit a tipping point politically and this will emerge as a very big story in the Republican primaries later this year."
The rise in the GOP primary of Republicans opposed to the continuation of the Afghanistan war could save thousands of American and Afghan lives and hundreds of billions of dollars.
Yesterday, I talked to Gary Johnson about the war. While I was talking with him, I raised some other issues of U.S. foreign policy.
Some highlights of the interview:
Here is the interview, which I have abridged slightly.
Robert Naiman: Let's start with the war in Afghanistan. According to the Washington Post, half of Republican voters say the war's not worth it; 56% of Republicans want to see a substantial withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan this summer. What is your opinion of the war in Afghanistan and what do you propose to do?
Gary Johnson: Initially, I thought that our going into Afghanistan was totally warranted, that that is what our military is for. We were attacked, we attacked back - I'm talking about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. But after being there for about six months, I think we pretty well effectively wiped out Al Qaeda, or sent them elsewhere - and that would of course be Pakistan. So here it is, we're there 10 years later, in what I say is building roads, schools, bridges, highways, and hospitals, and we're borrowing 43 cents out of every dollar to do that, and worse yet, men and servicewomen are losing their lives. I would advocate getting out of Afghanistan tomorrow, and for all the debate and the discussion over all the problems that we would encounter doing that, which I think would be completely warranted, I think we would have that same debate and discussion 25 years from now, if that's when we finally decide to get out.
RN: There's some discussion now about peace talks with the Afghan Taliban, an attempt to get a political resolution - what's your view on that?
Gary Johnson: That that should be our focus, and should always be our first and foremost defense would be just those kinds of initiatives. But I would want to make it really clear: I would get out of Afghanistan. This would not be a phased get-out. And I realize that the logistics of getting out tomorrow isn't tomorrow. But it's months, it's not years.
I'm talking about cutting defense spending by 43% and believing that we can provide a strong national defense for ourselves. And I think that defense is the key word as opposed to what I would describe as nation-building.
RN: There's a bill before the Senate now sponsored by Senator Boxer, it's essentially the same as a bill that was introduced last year by Senator Feingold, it would require the President to establish a timetable with an end date for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Do you have an opinion on that policy?
Gary Johnson: I'll shoot an opinion from the hip, and that would be to support such a piece of legislation.
RN: Let me ask you about your views on the Libya War. Do you think that the U.S. involvement is justified? What do you think about the President's decision to do this without Congressional authorization? And what do you think the U.S. should do now?
Gary Johnson: Well, you know, Bob, what I'm doing right now requires an opinion on everything that's happening right away. So right when Libya happened, I issued my written opinion on that. And I think it's pretty well opposed to everything we're doing in Libya A through Z. And it starts with no Congressional authorization. Where in the Constitution does it say that because we don't like a foreign leader that we should go in and topple the foreign leader? Who are the rebels? Are we not involved in a civil war here? And if that's what we're involved in, then don't five other countries in the Middle East qualify for this same kind of intervention? Under the umbrella of a no-fly zone, did not Saddam Hussein exist for 12 years? Under the umbrella of a no-fly zone, did not the atrocities in Bosnia occur? So I just see this as a growing conflict, and not in any way do I see this as ending anytime too soon.
RN: And so what do you think the U.S. should do now?
Gary Johnson: Well, given that we're in there right now, I would be looking to extricate ourselves from that. In my opinion, the trouble with all of our interventions, at least in my lifetime, is just all the unintended consequences that go along with those interventions. Like I say, I thought Afghanistan was originally totally warranted but it went so far beyond that initial reaction or attack back... There's no foreign threat here. There's no foreign threat in Afghanistan, there's no foreign threat in Libya.
I would have said before we went into Iraq that we didn't need to do that. First of all I didn't see them as being a threat to us, to our national security...I thought that if we went into Iraq we would find ourselves in a civil war, an endless civil war.
RN: You mentioned that you want to cut the military budget by 43%.
Gary Johnson: We can cut military spending by that amount of money and still provide a strong national defense. "Strong national defense" being the key... as opposed to... "nation-building," I use that [term] as a context of our getting involved and spending all our resources - in this case, our borrowed resources - on building other countries when we have these same needs here in this country.
RN: The President has recently talked a $400 billion cut from the increase that was proposed before. Some are now talking about $1 trillion in cuts, there was a bipartisan task force that recommended $1 trillion in cuts - both these proposals are over the next 10 years - do you have an opinion on these proposals?
Gary Johnson: Well, if you take what is estimated to be the entire defense budget - depending on what you include in defense - today that number is $800 billion, so if you're going to cut 43% from that, you're looking at a [more than $300 billion] reduction this year going forward, so in ten years that would be $3 trillion. So I think I go further than anybody else is talking about.
I come at this from the standpoint that we're spending more money on military spending than all of the other countries in the world combined, even though we're only 5% of the world's population.
RN: I wanted to ask you specifically about the base in Okinawa, of course there are hundreds of U.S. military bases around the world. But to me this is a kind of striking example, given that this base is so unpopular in Okinawa, so unpopular in Japan. They had a national election where it was a key issue, the incoming government had promised in its campaign that it would get rid of the U.S. military base. The new government came in, tried to negotiate that and the U.S. refused, and the Prime Minister had to resign. Even today, the governor of Okinawa, the local governments, they're all totally against this military base. At a time when we're talking about what to cut in the budget.
So I wanted to ask you, in particular, when we have a military base someplace where the local people don't want it, really hate it, and want it to go, do you think that should be a factor in our decision to maintain a military base there? Should we take into account the opinions of the people that live in the area?
Gary Johnson: Well, everything that you said I am aware of, and everything that you said I concur with completely. Why, why do we have a base in Okinawa? How can there be anything more frustrating than the example that you just pointed out? Yes, you would have to think that primary in the consideration of maintaining a base would be the notion that it was something that the people in the country of the base would be supporting.
RN: I wanted to ask you about your opinion the "war on drugs." This is kind of a signature issue for you, I wanted you to talk about the cost, your perception of the failure, and particularly the implications of the "war on drugs" for people in other countries, particularly in Mexico and Latin America, Mexico where thousands of people have been killed in the war on drugs there, Central America where there is now apparently a big expansion of the criminal drug trade. So tell me about your thoughts on the war on drugs, and what you think the U.S. should be doing instead, particularly as that relates to the impact of the war on drugs on other countries.
Gary Johnson: As Governor of New Mexico, what my pledge was, and what I did, and I'm really proud of this, and I said I was going to do this, that everything was going to be a cost-benefit analysis. Everything. What are we spending our money on, and what are we getting for the money that we're spending. That there wouldn't be any sacred cows, that politics was going to be the last consideration on the list, that first and foremost it was going to be about the issues, and understanding the issues. So when it comes to the war on drugs, I'm opposed to the war on drugs A through Z. But I came at it initially from the standpoint of - and, you know, there's naivety, I guess, on a broad number of issues, and this is after I'm elected, one of them is, I guess I really didn't understand that half of everything we spend on law enforcement, the courts, and the prisons is drug-related, and when you think about that, that is just staggering.
And when you think about what are we getting for half law enforcement, half the courts, and half the prisons? Well what we're getting, is we're arresting 1.8 million people a year in this country, which I point out is the population of New Mexico, that gets arrested every single year. And, we now have 2.3 million people behind bars. We have the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. And this is America? Liberty, freedom, the personal responsibility that goes along with that? I guess, except when it comes to your own body and what the decisions are surrounding that.
So going back to 1999, I came to the conclusion... that 90% of the drug problem is prohibition-related, not use-related. That's not to discount the problems with use and abuse, but that ought to be the focus. So in 1999, I advocated then, I advocate it now. Legalize marijuana. Control it, regulate it, tax it. It's never going to be legal to smoke pot, become impaired, get behind the wheel of a car, do harm to others. It's never going to be legal for kids to smoke pot or buy pot. And under which scenario is it going to be easier for kids to smoke pot or buy pot? The situation that exists today, where it's virtually available anywhere, and the person that sells pot also sells harder drugs? Or a situation where to purchase it, you would have to produce an ID in a controlled environment, like alcohol, to be able to buy it. I think you can make the case that it would be harder to buy it, in that controlled environment.
When it comes to all the other drugs - [marijuana] is the only drug that I'm advocating legalizing - but when it comes to all the other drugs, I think what we ought to really be concentrating on are harm reduction strategies - the things that we really care about, which is reducing death, disease, crime, corruption - in a nutshell, it is looking at the drug problem first as a health issue, rather than a criminal justice issue.
So here we have the border violence with Mexico. 28,000 deaths south of the border over the last four years. I believe that if we legalize marijuana 75% of that border violence goes away, because that's the estimate of the drug cartel's activities that revolve around the drug trade. The drug trade - prohibition - these are disputes that are being played out with guns, rather than the courts. Control this stuff, regulate this stuff, take the money out of drugs, and so goes the violence.
RN: Finally, I wanted to ask you - you know that a lot of people in America are upset about the wars and want the wars to end - all these wars, the war in Afghanistan, the war on drugs -
Gary Johnson: And you and I included in that group -
RN: Yeah. And a lot of these folks don't ordinarily vote in Republican primaries or participate in Republican caucuses. So I wondered if you want to speak about your outreach and interest to, let's say, non-traditional Republican voters, and what you're finding when you're talking to people, some people say that these wars aren't an issue. What are you hearing from voters on the campaign trail about these wars?
Gary Johnson: Well, first of all, I am running as a Republican here, and I think that I speak on behalf of a majority of Republicans, even though they may not know that, simply because they may have heard my name, but they have no idea who I am or what I'm even talking about.
I'm thinking that I may be speaking on behalf of the majority of Republicans, or enough Republicans, to actually win the primary, but I'm putting that to the test.
RN: Thank you so much for taking time for me.
Gary Johnson: And thank you for your activism. I appreciate what you do, because these conflicts are ridiculous. And - you have goals - should I ever reach this goal of holding this office, of being the guy on the watch, one of those goals would be to have no man or servicewoman lose their life.
Follow Robert Naiman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/naiman
James Peron: The Rodney Dangerfield of Politics: Gary Johnson, His Message and Evolving
Rabbi Arthur Waskow: Petition the President: End Afghan War Now!
| Romney | Santorum | Gingrich | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delegates | 1.47 Thousand | 254 | 138 | |
| Fundraising | $76 M | $16 M | $21 M | |
| Intrade | $9.61 | $0.06 | $0.01 | |
| 570 K | 200 K | 1.5 M |
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If GOP voters were smart, they would realize Johnson is the 1 Republican who could beat Obama, 1 on 1.
Again thanks for your coverage & I can't wait to see more!
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Well, then again, maybe we better think about what we're going to do if Pakistan or Iran moves in to fill the gap..........might be a problem to have two nuclear rogues collaborating to unite a billion or so Muslims under a fresh new nuclear caliphate with headquarter in Kabul............then, of course, Karzai could, at any time, sell the rights of the non-Pushtun people to the highest bidder, as other warlords might sell the rights of their unloved neighbors.
On second thought, maybe you'd better stay in New Mexico and leave the driving to somebody who's not so driven by politics and knows what the 'f' that they're doing :-)
Leave the diplomacy and wars to Government. Sometimes there's more to it than the eye can see and all you can do is to elect those you think you can trust. But be wary. It is all too easy to end a war when you don't have all the facts or any responsibility.
Are these RINO's going to come in and trample the crazees?
But, I'm still betting that they won't make a serious try until 2016. Looks like the best they can do in this election cycle, is to flush out the best turkey that's willing to volunteer for the slaughter. The volunteer will speculate on the hope that he/she will win, and usurp the mantle that's otherwise reserved for the more credible contenders who are deferring to 2016.
If he's running, I'd like to know more..
Johnson campaigned on his frank and business like manner and got elected governor of NM despite having held no previous political office.
Unfortunately NM is like nowhere politically speaking. None of the corporate concerns pay a bit of attention to NM and it's 5 electoral votes.
In the big picture Johnson is taking on the military industrial complex, a monster of unknown proportion. I don't have the facts, but I wouldn't be surprised if the MIC owns most of the main stream media. Johnson will go the way of Kucinich and only get the "crack pot" coverage.
Unless Johnson has a strong independent media showing none of his views will see the light of day when the push starts. It's truly unfortunate too, because this is change that I can believe in.
With nukes and wacko's criss-crossing the region, there is plenty to worry about both tactically and strategically. The Government can not support the level of transparency needed for us to know all of the facts, and we cannot be so cavalier in our judgement without all the facts.
At some point, we must trust in our leaders to make the best decisions possible, and we must know that even future Presidential candidates may not be privy to all that they need to know to make these judgement calls.............including the current Pres who called his shots and justifiably stood by them,..........Guantanamo being an exception; his commitment to adjudicate prisoners of war under criminal justice was wrong, but honestly based on his commitment to the highest standards and values of our country. He was also undermined by Republican shenanigans in his attempt to make this happen.
The mere fact that Johnson would call the shot without immersing himself in the facts and the issues over time makes him highly suspect. It would be better that he said that he was committed to try once he knew all of the facts and consider the issues. Otherwise his statement is political and he's just another political hack.
....A good reason why unemployment insurance is being cut off and families are going homeless and once middle classers are lining up at soup kitchens. All so we can fight ghosts in Afghanistan, line the pockets of their ultra-super-corrupt president and his family, and build his country while our country, schools, roads, bridges... continues to degenerate. Yet instead of angry and not taking it anymore, all people can think to do is whine about the few weeks spent in Libya.
Still no end in sight in Afghanistan, thanks to Obama (who could have ended it in months, years ago). The same president who gave away a trillion more of American's taxes to "save Wall St.", who are now making money off of loans to the government from that bailout money. Meanwhile, OBama's poll numbers are pretty steady. Any wonder why the country isn't going anywhere good anytime soon?
It was Bush who spent 4 trillion more than he took in. That's right, more than all of the other Presidents combined.