This is a Cato Special Podcast. I'm Caleb Brown. We'll know when individual

Republicans are serious about cutting spending when they start talking about

wars as spending issues. Now that potential presidential hopeful Haley Barber is making noise

about the costs and benefits of our protracted war in Afghanistan, is he taking a serious look

at federal spending or just reading the tea leaves.

Christopher Preble, Director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, comments.

Haley Barber is believed to be one of the smartest political strategists on the Republican side.

And he may run for president.

He, on the heels of a Washington Post poll that showed that support is dwindling and declining at a more

rapid rate.

The war in Afghanistan now, 64% of Americans say the war hasn't been worth it, which is different than the saying

we should leave or we should stay. The war overall hasn't been worth it.

Haley Barber comes out and says,

we need to draw down more quickly than we have.

So what is his calculation?

Well, I think it's impossible to know,

with complete precision, but it would be wise to infer that this

political strategist is reading the tea leaves and saying even among Republicans

even among self-described conservatives.

The war is increasingly unpopular.

Some polls show that perhaps a half, as much as a half of conservatives are basically concluding what he has and it's interesting

how he framed it.

...