Hugh Hewitt: Tom Cotton On “Blue Slips”

[TomSea]

Tue, May 9, 2017  |  By Hugh Hewitt
Senator Tom Cotton On “Blue Slips”

Politico’s @SeungMinKim has a story on “blue slips” this morning.  It should be read along with my Washington Post op-ed on the subject from a few weeks back.  I returned to the subject with Senator Tom Cotton this morning after we had talked about the Pentagon’s request for more troops in Afghanistan, and the appointment vacuums at DOD and State:

Audio:

05-09hhs-cotton

Transcript:

HH: I’m joined now by United States Senator Tom Cotton from the great state of Arkansas. Good morning, Senator Cotton, thanks for joining me.

TC: Good morning, Hugh, give my best to Lanhee, an old classmate, and even roommate of mine.

HH: I will do that. Now I have three or four things to cover with you in quick fashion. First of all, Washington Post, New York Times today reporting that President Trump’s most senior military and foreign policy advisors have proposed a major shift in strategy in Afghanistan, one that may call for between more than five to eight thousand troops, maybe as few as three thousand, but up to eight thousand. What do you think of the plan? Have you been briefed on it? Do you want it to happen?

TC: Hugh, we’ve been muddling along in Afghanistan for a few years now. President Obama put arbitrary troop limits on our forces in Afghanistan as well as in Iraq. That’s not the way a commander-in-chief should conduct wartime operations. He should set and then state an objective, a strategy, and allow his commanders to work up courses of action. It doesn’t surprise me that the administration has gone through this deliberate policy planning process, and that the commander would be recommending various courses of action that may entail different troops levels to President Trump. So I’ll let them reach the final decision, but it’s been clear for a while that we have not had the forces on the ground in Afghanistan that we needed to accomplish our mission there, which is to prevent the Islamic State from growing its footprint, ultimately to defeat it there, as well as to prevent the Taliban from once again establishing safe havens from which terrorist groups can launch attacks against the United States.

HH: There are some stories that allege this is being called by some in the West Wing McMaster’s war. Dr. Rice was my guest last hour and the hour before. She said McMaster’s one of the finest generals of the generation. Do you sense there’s any conflict inside the West Wing over H.R. McMaster?

TC: Hugh, I would say it’s America’s war. Afghanistan was the place from which the 9/11 attacks were planned, and it’s the one place from which we ejected al Qaeda, and we have essentially held that ground ever since. We shouldn’t allow them to come back. I agree with Secretary of State Rice that H.R. McMcaster is among the finest generals and strategists of his generation. There’s always disagreements within any White House, and within any administration. That’s a healthy thing. You want to have that kind of creative tension, because you want decisions to be framed for the commander-in-chief to make. You should not reach a kind of false level of general consensus at the principals or the deputies level that papers over disagreements when the commander-in-chief, the only democratically-elected official in the White House, can make those decisions.

Continued: http://www.hughhewitt.com/senator-tom-cotton-blue-slips/