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Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

The New Republican Hawks’ Credibility Problem

Their ridiculous statements draw attention to how ill-informed or opportunistic many of the new Republican hawks are.

John Hudson previews five of the Republicans in the Senate that will have an outsized influence on foreign policy. Here he talks about the newly-elected Senator from Iowa, Joni Ernst:

She’s also shown a curious lack of knowledge about the run-up to the Iraq war, telling the Des Moines Register “I do have reason to believe there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,” despite the fact that no such weapons were ever found in the country.

Viewed one way, it is extremely depressing that someone so thoroughly ignorant about one of the major foreign policy issues of our time could be elected to the Senate. It is even more depressing when one considers that Ernst served in overseas in connection with the Iraq war. One would think that this would disqualify Ernst, but unfortunately it doesn’t. Likewise, Gardner and Cotton have indulged in the most shameless and dishonest fear-mongering and prospered. Damon Linker recently marveled that Tom Cotton won his election in Arkansas in a landslide despite making preposterous and completely unfounded claims about ISIS collaboration with Mexican drug cartels. That should have marked Cotton as a fantasist, but he has been able to get away with it so far because he has been able to tap into voters’ fears.

In the short term, hawks can benefit from making irresponsible and ignorant claims, but sooner or later it is going to come back to bite them. All of these ridiculous statements draw attention to how ill-informed or opportunistic many of the new Republican hawks are. That suggests that they will keep saying embarrassing and obviously false things that will help to discredit them and their hawkish views within the GOP.

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