Posted on 08/05/2013 3:32:51 AM PDT by TexGrill
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich says he's reconsidering his neoconservative views regarding the benefits gained from U.S. military interventions as a way to promote democracy in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Gingrich believes the methods he has long been a supporter of have backfired and require re-evaluation, the Washington Times reports.
I am a neoconservative, Gingrich told the Times. But at some point, even if you are a neoconservative, you need to take a deep breath to ask if our strategies in the Middle East have succeeded.
Gingrich, who backed the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, said he has become increasingly skeptical about the strategy of attempting to export democracy by force to countries where religion and culture clash with Western values.
It may be that our capacity to export democracy is a lot more limited than we thought, Gingrich said.
Gingrich said that while he has expressed his doubts concerning the ability of the U.S. for nation building before, he has only recently reached conclusions about their failures in light of the experiences of the past decade.
My worry about all this is not new, Gingrich said.
But my willingness to reach a conclusion is new.
Gingrich recommended Republicans put more weight on the anti-interventionist ideas offered by the libertarian-minded Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a tea party favorite and foreign policy skeptic.
I think it would be healthy to go back and war-game what alternative strategies would have been better, and I like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul because they are talking about this, Gingrich said.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
To: TexGrill
“When you fight a war you destroy the enemy and his property until he no longer can fight.”.
Too bad the American “war” policy (including our allies) don’t follow that theory. Instead, we send our troops to fight a war with orders of “don’t shoot unless you are being shot at first”, supply them with rubber bullets or bean bags and with no “clear” idea of what/who the enemy really is. When you go to war you go to win, plain and simple. Obviously our tactics lack any plan or intention to “Win”.
Too bad the American “war” policy (including our allies) don't follow that theory. Instead, we send our troops to fight a war with orders of “don't shoot unless you are being shot at first”, supply them with rubber bullets or bean bags and with no “clear” idea of what/who the enemy really is. When you go to war you go to win, plain and simple. Obviously our tactics lack any plan or intention to “Win”.
The two greatest successes ever in nation building occured with Japan and Germany after WW II. But FIRST, we totally destroyed both countries, and eliminated most of their military and government.
“Would you elect someone who changes their opinions every few months?”
Newt Gingrich, the subject at hand, does not change his opinion every few months. In fact very few people I know of change their opinion every few months, unless maybe you do. Methinks you exaggerate greatly.
The key issues we’ve been ignoring in comparisons to both Japan and Germany are:
1. We crushed them. We didn’t tip-toe around the issue. We crushed their entire society. We made war not only upon their war machines and their military personnel, we bombed the civilian populace to a point where we were killing them by the hundreds of thousands.
When we were done with Japan and Germany, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind who won. All you had to do was stand in the middle of their countries and look around.
2. Both countries had this thing called “modern civilization” before we got there. They weren’t crapping in the middle of the street before we arrived. In Islamic countries, we’re not trying to defeat militaristic nations with otherwise functional civilizations, complete with running water and modern sanitation. Nooooo... we’re dealing with people who have the level of “civilization” from about, oh, 1300 AD.
There’s no way we’re going to jump-start 700 years of civilization in these countries. Just no way.
It's my opinion that this particular methodology would work quite well in Muslim nations but first we have to convince our fellow Americans that we need to take these steps.
In too many recent wars, the politicians have rushed to secure the peace before the war was actually won and the enemy surrendered.
Thus, they end up negotiating with the enemy and the enemy usually wins that.
Good judgment is the result of experience. Experience is the result of bad judgement.
Trotsky advocated a global, incremental push toward communism, by first instilling democracy, which would naturally morph to socialism, which would naturally morph to full-blown communism. Neo-cons perpetuate the democracy-to-socialism-to-communism scam of Trotsky by their advocation of nation building, global free trade, open borders, amnesty, and on and on.
The neo-con elements in the Republican party are just as much threatened by a republican form of government as are their Leninist comrades in the Democrat party.
In a democracy, minority groups are always persecuted to some extent. You can see this work on smaller scales in our own Constitutional Republic, wherein the more local units of government are true democracy. City and county governments are democracies, while States and Federal governments are supposed to be representative republics. The US Constitution states that the Federal government shall guarantee that each state will have a republican form of government.
This was, by design, to prevent tyranny of the majority. People can move from out of a county or city if they are a persecuted minority much more easily than they can move out of a state or out of a country.
Every country that has fallen prey to the neo-con promise of "democracy" has shortly thereafter devolved into tribal warfare. It doesn't work.
Bipolar Newt.
I really don’t give a flying flip what he thinks today because it will change tomorrow.
unfortunately we have one who is in his second term right now
I’ve been saying for a while now we should have left Afghanistan after the punitive expedition phase and before the transition to the meals on wheels phase.
Until we are again willing to crush a serious enemy and forcefully reset their society and government, as we did with Germany and Japan, I am very against long term military actions. And am for much more forethought on choosing to engage in any short term ones.
Absolutely and resolutely.
Islam and any form of freedom is completely incompatable.
Yeah, a Republican who’s willing to admit publicly that his thinking might need adjustment, and who has a good word to say for Cruz and Paul, must be attacked for lack of perfection. /s
Defeating the islamofascists economically is the way to do the job right. Going full throttle on American energy would do wonders for us and for their attitudes.
I have definitely rethought my views on the Iraq War, I think it was a big mistake, and has indirectly led to the mess we’re seeing now in the Middle East with this so-called “Arab Spring”, which only stands to benefit the Islamo-Fascists in the region.
Saddam at least was a secular leader, and Christians in Iraq were better off with him in charge, than with what has succeeded him, or what will be leading Iraq in the near future.
Democracy and Islam do not mix, and that’s the bottom line, and it’s a fool’s errand to try to impose it on Islamic states.
Trying to topple and occupy two distant hostile nations requires many, many more US forces than anybody even spoke about.
Consequently we confirmed to radical islam, that they can expect only token politically motivated opposition.
They will have A. and I. back soon.
Led by isolationists from the left and right, we’ll spend money on Detroit, instead of on our military safety.
Why do you think Obama is turning down the pipeline and holding back on permits?
He knows that and is on their side.
Yes. He is doing whatever he can to rein in — indeed, to hobble — this country. What’s good for islam is certainly a major tool in his kit. He...
loves discord — check!
tells lies — check!
endorses infanticide — check!
protects perverts — check!
favors anti-christians — check!
If he’s a Manchurian candidate, I’m thinking Manchuria is an office in hell.
Somebody must have stolen the RESET Button that Hillary gave him.
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