In May, Will Ruger wrote in the National Interest: “President Trump has correctly concluded that a full and speedy withdrawal of our troops is imperative. Our national interest isn’t served by continuing to wage a futile battle but by exiting it.”
Ruger is the vice president for research and policy at the Charles Koch Institute. On Friday, it was reported that Ruger is Trump’s choice to be the next ambassador to Afghanistan.
Ruger is a naval reserve officer who served almost a year in Afghanistan. The libertarian-conservative Ruger has long been a staunch advocate for a full withdrawal of United States troops from that country. (Disclosure: Ruger is a friend of mine.)
Trump has signaled at different times throughout his term that he wants to get the U.S. out of Afghanistan, which has resulted in some troop reductions. But to date, he has not followed through on any real finality to America’s longest war.
Ruger’s aim is in line with Trump’s impulse: immediate troop withdrawal.
“Staying longer will not magically achieve the broad and unnecessary goals that have eluded us to date,” Ruger wrote in the Washington Post in August 2019 in response to an editorial that criticized Trump for negotiating with the Taliban.
Some Republicans who agree with Trump’s instincts on this issue and his “America First” foreign-policy rhetoric have long believed that his proclamations of ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan have always been undermined by bad advice dispensed by advisers who belong to Washington’s bipartisan foreign-policy establishment.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who has advocated for the removal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan for his entire congressional career, told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd in January that Trump “keeps appointing people to represent him that think the Iraq War was just great. They loved Dick Cheney’s position, and they still don’t admit it was a mistake.”
Paul concluded, “So that’s why he keeps getting policy that isn’t his policy.”
“Personnel is policy” is a cliche for a reason. Tapping Ruger would be the most anti-foreign-policy-establishment decision Trump has made in Washington.
“We should not leave even a small force in Afghanistan — whether the 8,600-strong presence agreed to for the first phase of our withdrawal agreement with the Taliban or a smaller, counter-terrorism-focused force some are advocating,” Ruger wrote in May. “Leaving ground troops there promises more casualties in this nearly twenty-year war without enhancing our security. Plus, it will tempt policymakers to repeat past mistakes by adding more troops and expanding their missions.”
Ruger continued, “The persistence of conflict in this faraway country doesn’t imply a threat to Americans any more than numerous other lingering foreign civil wars do … The clear-cut case for withdrawing isn’t stopping many within the foreign policy establishment from trying to prevent an end to American involvement in the war.”
No doubt, those same establishment voices in both parties would pile on Ruger during his confirmation hearings if the president formally nominates him.
“Unfortunately, these establishment elites have failed to tell us how staying is going to accomplish much more than wasting additional American blood and treasure,” Ruger added.
“President Trump should ignore these voices who have consistently been wrong about Afghanistan,” Ruger recommended. “Instead, he should trust his own instincts and accelerate the withdrawal from the country.”
Trump should finally and completely ignore the countless Washington foreign-policy “experts” who have been consistently wrong on Afghanistan. He should trust his instincts.
Appointing Ruger as the next U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan would mean precisely that.
Jack Hunter (@jackhunter74) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is the former political editor of Rare.us and the co-author of the 2011 book The Tea Party Goes to Washington with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.
