Rep. Tom Cole cites Iraq war in GOP’s struggles

WASHINGTON — Rep. Tom Cole, in a candid new assessment of the state of the Republican Party, says the GOP lost its majorities in the House and Senate because of the Iraq war and calls for the party to abandon former President George W. Bush’s doctrine of unprovoked aggression.

Cole, R-Moore, who has spent much of his career working to get Republicans elected to office, says the party can make a comeback, both through capitalizing on Democratic missteps and redefining its identify, including on social issues.

Cole makes his arguments in a forthcoming opinion piece in a magazine published by Grinnell College, where Cole got his undergraduate degree.

In the piece, he says "it is clear that the decision of the Bush administration to go to war in Iraq cost Republicans their majority in Congress” after the 2006 elections. "Experience suggests that the Bush doctrine of ‘pre-emptive’ war is ill-suited to America’s values, traditions and democratic institutions. It ought to be discarded.”

‘War of choice’

In an interview, Cole said, "The reality is that if you engage in a war of choice — and Iraq was a war of choice — it’s going to become a partisan war. That’s OK I suppose if you win quickly. But I think once a war lasts as long as (the Iraq war) has lasted — March of ’03 to November of ’06 and of course still on to today — that it had political consequences for the Republican Party nationally.

"Certainly it did on the coasts, in places like New England and California. Again, it didn’t damage us equally everywhere. It didn’t hurt us in the Southern states. ... It did cost us a lot of support and provided a lot of fuel and energy for the other side.”

Cole said he still believes the world is better off without Saddam Hussein running Iraq, but he questioned whether Bush would have gone to war if the only reason was to depose Saddam.

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