War fever was running high in America, and especially among Republicans, on October 10, 2002. That is when the United States House of Representatives voted on H.J.Res. 114, a resolution sponsored by House Speaker Dennis J. Hastert and demanded by President George W. Bush — both Republicans. The resolution would authorize the US to use military force against Iraq.
While a majority of Democratic House members voted against the resolution, the vote among Republicans was heavily in favor. Just six Republicans voted “no” while 215 voted “yes.” That’s a 97 percent landslide among voting Republican House members.
The six Republican House members who voted that day against the US proceeding into the Iraq War were John Duncan, Jr. of Tennessee, John Hostettler of Indiana, Amo Houghton of New York, Jim Leach of Iowa, Connie Morella of Maryland, and Ron Paul of Texas. Among these Republicans who opposed the Iraq War from the beginning, Duncan was the last to leave the House, retiring in January of 2019 after not seeking reelection to another two-year term.
Now there is the prospect that one of those Republican members who stood up against the pressure to support the US pursuing war against Iraq will regain his old House seat. Hostettler has thrown his hat into the ring to run for the House seat for the eighth district of Indiana that he had represented for six terms from 1995 to 2007.
While the district has changed since Hostettler last represented it, his former terms in office should help him build campaign support. He faces eight other candidates in the Republican primary seeking to take the place of the retiring Republican incumbent.
Hostettler released a video last week announcing his candidacy. In that video, he makes clear that opposition to US involvement in the Ukraine War will be a big part of his campaign. Early in the video, Hostettler notes that, just as when he first ran for Congress 30 years ago, “we have a Democrat president embroiling us in a military conflict in Eastern Europe that presents absolutely no national security interest of the United States” — comparing the military intervention President Bill Clinton pursued in the former Yugoslavia with that now pursued by President Joe Biden in the Ukraine War. Proceeding, Hostettler presents his opposition to the US continuing to support the “undeniably corrupt regime” in Ukraine in its unwinnable war against Russia. Further, Hostettler expresses his opposition to US sanctions against Russia that he notes have hurt economies in Europe and threaten the status of the US dollar as the world reserve currency.
In the summation of his comments in the video, Hostettler declares in regard to foreign policy:
And the greatest national sin is hubris. We will learn we cannot impose our will — even the will of some ambiguous rules-based order — on the other powers of the earth, especially against a known nuclear superpower.
Watch Hostettler’s campaign announcement video here:
