An unusual groundswell of support from House Republicans for a Massachusetts liberal’s measure is a stark example of changing sentiments on Afghanistan.
Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, offered an amendment to the annual defense authorization bill specifying that combat operations involving United States forces in Afghanistan be completed by the end of 2013, and “the accelerated transition of military and security operations by the end of 2014.” More than half of the House Republican caucus, 120 in all, supported Mr. McGovern’s effort, and the amendment passed by 91 votes.
Compare that with a 2009 House vote on a McGovern amendment requiring that the Pentagon report to Congress on an exit strategy for American military forces in Afghanistan by the end of that year. Just seven House Republicans voted for it. They included skeptics on the Afghan war like Walter B. Jones Jr. of North Carolina and Ron Paul of Texas, who had made a military pullback part of his 2008 bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Mr. McGovern’s amendment failed by 71 votes.
Four years later, a wide range of Republicans from across the nation, including six from Texas, 11 from Florida and four of five Kentuckians, joined all but nine Democrats in voting for Mr. McGovern’s amendment. It was the most Republican support any amendment by him has ever received on the House floor.
