Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., may be critical of the Biden administration nominees' support of the Iraq War, but a newly-uncovered blog post shows that at one point he too supported the same war he is now opposing.
According to CNN, Hawley is said to have written the remarks prior to becoming a lawmaker. In the 2005 blog post about Iraq, Hawley wrote, "The question should not be, When do we get to leave? But instead, How are we going to win?"
He also wrote, "Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State, has an excellent column on Iraq in this morning's Washington Post. Kissinger understands the importance of linking the security and political situations in the country."
"That is, we must both train Iraqi troops and use them to suppress the insurgency as well as push forward with the formation of a stable, democratic government," Hawley continued. "He also understands that military operations in Iraq must be subordinated to and integrated with our broader geo-strategic goals in the region. Read the piece. It'll make an excellent primer for the President's Oval Office address tonight."
Back in November, Hawley tweeted a photo of Biden's list of Cabinet nominees, writing: "What a group of corporatists and war enthusiasts."
He added, "Take Tony Blinken. He's backed every endless war since the Iraq invasion. Now he works for #BigTech and helps companies break into #China. He has no sense of what working Americans want or need."
Like the former president, Hawley initially expressed support for the Iraq War and then changed his tune while on the campaign trail in 2016. At the time, Hawley slammed his political opponents for their support of the invasion.
Hawley's spokesperson Phil Letsou released a statement to CNN addressing the Republican senator's stark change in opinion. "Senator Hawley's views have definitely changed since his school days," Letsou said in the email. "If the twenty-year failed experiment in 'neo-conservative' globalism in the Middle East doesn't convince you that nation-building doesn't work, nothing will."
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