Green: Steele’s checkered reputation hinders credibility on Afghanistan war

Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele’s efforts to win the respect of… Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele’s efforts to win the respect of his party are about as fruitless as his attempts to bring “off the hook” back into popular usage. His reign as chairman has been salted with embarrassing gaffes, a controversial surprise — and not in a good way — book release and several very public feuds with certain members of Republican leadership.

Most recently, Steele was caught on tape blasting the war in Afghanistan, which might not have been such a good idea, since — newsflash! — the Republican Party, as in the political party he represents, has been consistently supportive of the war since the United States entered it almost nine years ago. Now, Steele is taking more heat than John Boehner’s tanning bed, from Democrats and Republicans alike.

Steele was speaking at a Connecticut fundraiser when he commented that Afghanistan “was a war of [President Barack] Obama’s choosing,” according to MSNBC. He then suggested that the war was not even winnable.

“If [Obama’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,” Steele said. “Because everyone who’s tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed.”

Predictably, within hours of its release on YouTube, Republicans such as John McCain, Jim DeMint and Tom Cole began the savage mangling of Steele. They ripped on his credibility and some called for his resignation. They all left him for dead — like a herd of antelope abandoning its weakest member to be picked off by political talk shows, Democrats or Liz Cheney, if she could only get her hands on him.

Steele’s words were described as “embarrassing,” “inaccurate” and “an affront, both to the honor of the Republican party and to the commitment of the soldiers fighting,” — that last one coming from the loving desk of Bill Kristol. Kristol’s letter urging Steele to resign — which was addressed,“Dear Michael,” no less — reeked with passive-aggressive restraint.

The Democratic National Committee, never missing an opportunity to damage the fine, upstanding reputation of the Republican Party even at its own expense, had this hypocritical tidbit to say in an official press release, according to the Washington Post: “… The American people will be interested to hear that the leader of the Republican Party thinks recent events related to the war are ‘comical’ and that he is betting against our troops and rooting for failure in Afghanistan.”

The problem with this attack on Steele is that, well, since when is the DNC the political party that implies others are unpatriotic or “against” the troops just for being philosophically opposed to a war?

In fact, the saddest part about Steele’s political beating is that his comments actually had some merit. Without a doubt, the content was far from accurate. Implying that Obama initiated the war in Afghanistan and then denying any Republican responsibility for it is beyond laughable, beyond hypocritical, though, frankly, not beyond Steele. Of course, there’s always the chance he managed to do that which I’ve only dreamed of: memory loss of George W. Bush’s presidency, in which case he must be lauded respectfully.

Yet despite these inaccuracies, the rest of Steele’s comment is actually true. The war in Afghanistan is likely un-winnable. To this day, 1125 American soldiers have perished while serving in Afghanistan, according to The Washington Post. That’s not to mention the deaths of thousands of Afghani citizens, which, according to U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, occur “on a daily basis.”

The United States has lost the support of the Afghan people, according to Afghan Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad. It costs $1 million per year to keep one soldier in Afghanistan. No military tactic has been successful in correcting these problems. And, finally, we are no closer to finding Osama bin Laden, which, let’s not forget, was the chief reason for invading Afghanistan.

Simply put, Steele had it right. We need to get out of Afghanistan, and soon. But naturally, after being properly b*tch-slapped from every direction, he was quick to retract his statement and offer an “explanation” for his previous comments, though it didn’t address his factual errors, merely stating, “For the sake of the security of the free world, our country must give our troops the support necessary to win this war. As we have learned throughout history, winning a war in Afghanistan is a difficult task. We must also remember that after the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, it is also a necessary one.”

And once again, the real truth — that Afghanistan is quickly becoming a sequel to the Vietnam War — glimmers for a second before being buried again under mounds and mounds of political bullsh*t.

E-mail Molly at mog4@pitt.edu.