Midterm Elections a Big Win for Hawks

Pro-Intervention Republicans to See Major Gains in Influence

Though the reality is that most of the Congressional races in the US amounted to a race between a pro-war candidate and an even more pro-war candidate and most of the discussions of foreign policy between the two centered on which was which, the results of the election as they trickle in reveal a big win for the “even more pro-war candidate” types both in seats and influence.

As the Republicans consolidate control over the House of Representatives and score big gains in the Senate, their most hawkish members are eagerly snatching up key foreign policy positions, with Howard McKeon (R – CA) looking to head the Armed Services Committee and bringing his support for endless war and “modernization” of nuclear weapons with him.

Other representatves and senators, including Sen. McCain (R – AZ), Rep. Ros-Lehtinen (R – FL) and Rep. Eric Cantor (R – VA) also look to dramatically increase their influence, and to the extent any of them criticizes the Obama Administration’s hawkish positions it seems, invariably, to be for being not hawkish enough.

Congressional rubber stamps for the wars are nothing new, but they seem poised to continue in a big way for the next two years (and indeed the forseeable future after that), and any hope the remaining antiwar Dems had for closing Guatanamo Bay or securing nuclear arms reductions will likely go out the window.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.