Politico is reporting that Haley Barbour is putting some distance between himself and leading rivals on both defense spending and the war in Afghanistan. Speaking in Iowa, the Mississippi governor said: “Anybody who says you can’t save money at the Pentagon has never been to the Pentagon. We can save money on defense and if we Republicans don’t propose saving money on defense, we’ll have no credibility on anything else.”
On Afghanistan: “What is our mission? How many Al Qaeda are in Afghanistan. … Is that a 100,000-man Army mission?” Barbour continued, “I don’t think our mission should be to think we’re going to make Afghanistan an Ireland or an Italy.”
