Gingrich sees war on terror lasting 50 to 70 more years

Globe Gazette ^ | August 13, 2005 | DAN GEARINO

[AlwaysFree]

DES MOINES — Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Friday that Americans need to be ready to wage the war on terrorism for 50 to 70 more years.

The possible 2008 Republican presidential candidate also called for a restructuring of presidential debates and campaign events to bring more substance and fewer shrill attacks.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Welcome to Free Republic.

[Americanexpat]

He could be right about it taking so long.

When we fought countries like Germany and Japan we could bomb them and invade them with troops on the ground until they surrendered.

Terrorists like Al Quedia and others have no centralized government we can fight. They have an ideology and we have to defeat that first. That is hard to do when that ideology and the cult of death is fed to them from their mothers teat and taught to them in the home, schools and mosques all their lives.

We can destroy Iraq, Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia, but it is much harder to fight this ideology.

[The Worthless Miracle]

No one would care about this has-been if it weren't for sean milquetoast hannity's butt-kissing.

[sportutegrl]

The war on both Blitzkreig and Kamikaze took only 4 years to end. Enemies armed with a lot more than car bombs. If we didn't have our hands tied by the MSM, liberal protesters, etc., we could win this war in 4 years. If we didn't have to tiptoe around enemy combatants dressed as civilians, if we could bomb mosques that are full of combatants and artillery, if we could use coersive techniques to get intelligence data from captured combatants, If the MSM wouldn't smear us in the press for civilian casualities when the combatants are using civilians as cover, If, If, If. We could win in a weekend.

[Dark Skies]

Hell it has been going on since the crusades

But now it is financed with petrodollars and has (or soon will have) nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them.

I suggest it won't last very much longer. As soon as Iran can nuke Israel, this mess will come to a head.

[tet68]

Welcome to FR.

in order for acts of Jihad to end these teachings must first end and then all those who have been programmed need to be captured killed or de programmed.

Actually we will need to do all this at the same time,
50 to 70 years?

Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia...

[one more state]

There's no way we'll be in this war that long. Soon we'll be part of Mexico, and Mexico isn't in the war on terror.

[putupjob]

Good work in the last election guys. Until you guys showed up things were looking good for Kerry. Until he got hit by the truth.

[plain talk]

sure - in 2008 you'll be looking at John McCain. Have a nice day.

[John Filson]

Can you imagine Churchill saying something like this? Imagine the Island hopping war in the Pacific lasting 50 years. Our politicians are just about useless at war fighting.

[R. Scott]

Americans need to be ready to wage the war on terrorism for 50 to 70 more years.

Our “War” on drugs has been waged for nearly 70 years.

[one more state]

and Mexico isn't in the war on drugs

[Jack Deth]

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Friday that Americans need to be ready to wage the war on terrorism for 50 to 70 more years.

Newt's full of crap, as usual, in things Military. Ten Years. Max. Iraq is the linch pin on which all other Arab/Islamic States will discover that Democracy if far better than Fear.

Jack.

[ex-snook]

" We can destroy Iraq, Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia, but it is much harder to fight this ideology."

That is true. We defeated Russia by challenging their ideology. They were on the verge of destroying each other during Iran-Iraq war. Even now we are trying to prevent an Iraq revolution when we should stand aside and let them sort it out. Countries in the West have had their share of civil wars, including us.

[R. Scott]

No, it isn’t – but as with the War on Terror, the War on Drugs is a war against an idea, not a country.

[atlanta67]

Gingrich has a good message but the messenger is too tainted to win anything

[cynicom]

Newt who??????

[cloud8]

> The last war on terror, the war against the anarchists, lasted about 40-45 years, from the 1880's to the 1920's...

Don't forget Sen. McCarthy's and the HUAC's vigilance against the Communist terror. How long did it take to defeat Marxism? 1948-1992 or so? Once again, a generation. And the bastards still rule N. Korea, Cuba, VN, and are terrorizing Nepal and the Andes.

The Liberals said world Communism was inevitable. They were so wrong about that then and wrong about the threat of Islamic Fascism now. Thinkers like the Speaker need to point out what needs to be done over and over, I'm afraid.

[Revolting cat!]

Shoot, outside of Iraq we're not fighting any War. As with the War on POverty (40+ years), and with the War on Drugs (someone said 70 years) we're just using this War on Terror moniker to create more neverending gummint programs.

(Check out the ridiculous case of the Lodi Islamist cleric and his baby boy, and compare with the cases of Nazi spies during WWII to see what I mean.)

[adx]

Gingrich sees war on terror lasting 50 to 70 more years

Considering the way we're fighting it, yeah, I can easily see this.