Many in the CPAC audience Thursday were surprised to see a panel entitled “Too Many American Wars? Should We Fight Anywhere and Can We Afford It?” stacked 4-1 with war hawks.
The panel, moderated by GOP Iowa Rep. Steve King, got almost no applause here at first day of annual Conservative Political Action Conference in suburban Washington.
The discussion failed to connect with many of the under-40 conservatives in the audience, as well as some of the older attendees, who contend the U.S. keeps mounting wars despite not having won a war outright since 1945.
A member of a following panel on “Iran and the Islamist Threat to America and the West: What is — What Should Be — Our Strategy” defended the hawkish views of the earlier discussion.
“The problem is there are those waging war against us. Ignoring them is not a viable option,” said Clifford May, president of the neoconservative Foundation for the Defense of Democracy.
