Posted on 11/29/2006 9:48:42 AM PST by jamese777
In N.H., says Bush must admit that to regain trust
BEDFORD, N.H. -- Former House speaker Newt Gingrich told a New Hampshire audience yesterday that unless the Bush administration admits that the war in Iraq is a "failure," it will never develop a strategy to leave the country successfully.
Gingrich, who has been laying the groundwork for a presidential run, said the Bush administration needs to plan a "third stage" in Iraq, following the military takeover stage and the recent democracy-building stage. But he says a third stage can come about only if officials admit they must change course.
"If the military, White House, and State Department continue to avoid the word 'failure,' how can you bring about a third stage?" Gingrich said.
Gingrich was in New Hampshire for three campaign-style events Monday night and yesterday. While the former speaker has expressed interest in a presidential run, he said yesterday that he is more interested in injecting ideas in to the 2008 campaign than in putting his name on the ballot. He said he will not seriously entertain a presidential campaign until September.
Gingrich, who served on a key Pentagon board that advised Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in the runup to the Iraq war, was eager to distance himself from the Bush administration's handling of the war.
He said a show of contrition by the White House would help the president regain the trust of the American people and avoid a quick pullout, which would be disastrous.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
The US will be around long after Newt has given up the ghost.
The next generation is much more conservative than we are having seen what several generations of left-wing initiatives produces.
And when are we pulling the troops out of Cuba? It's been 108 years and still no exit strategy?
Got to agree. For sheer political selfishness these guys publicly state that Iraq is a failure. Is Iraq now facing hard times? Yes, so let's stop being PC and either do what needs to be done or GET OUT! Enough of this nonsense of ignoring the 800 lb gorillas in the room (Syria and Iran). The better question is, "Do we have the national will to persevere and win?"
Good description of them...
He telegraphs his every move and is incapable of undertaking anything with secrecy or discretion.
The most radical Shi'ites follow him and as a result their movements are highly visible and easily monitored.
His slavishness to Persian foreigners and belligerent insistence on his own importance offends and alienates the majority of Shi'ites who look to the pro-democracy, government-aligned Ayatollah Al-Sistani as a relgious leader and who distrust foreign, Iranian influence on Shi'ite institutions.
If Sadr were killed, he would likely be replaced by a smarter, more discreet warlord who would be able to build broader alliances for the radical agenda among Iraqi Shi'ites.
Err....um.....how many thousands of those troops have died recently?
Nice headline except for the fact that he didn't say that. I saw the speech on C-SPAN. What he said was the war was a success taking out Saddam in less than a month. He argues that the current strategy in Iraq has failed and another way needs to be found to bring Iraq into a liberal democracy and kill Islamists. Hard to argue.
What kind of speech was this? Can't succeed period but if President Bush admits failure he can reach the third phase which may lead to success? I've changed my opinion about Newt, he's an idiot!
Agreed. You can thank big Jim Baker for that too!
Newt hasn't said a smart thing in 5 years.
We would have cut and run as soon as terrorists killed any troops, just like Reagan cut and ran from Beirut?
Stop living in the past.
Hey everyone, WE WON THE STINKING WAR!
Iraq is having trouble setting up their new government.
But Sadr must die in order for them to do this right.
The reconstruction has been a failure, partially due to too much civilian and UN involvement when Iraq really needed an unabashedly American military governor to play the role Douglas MacArthur played in post-war Japan.
The giant error was to try to pretend that Iraq's reconstruction was an Arab effort, and that the US wasn't really pulling the new leaders' puppet strings. Presumably, this was to avoid "inflaming the Arab street". We should have gone right ahead and set up a representative government based on our system of laws, limited the participation of radical parties, and not hesitated to publicly hang every last terrorist who took a shot at our soldiers.
Iraq was defeated, and the whole Arab world needed daily reminders of that for the next five years - mess with the US and get Toby Keith's proverbial "boot in your ass". Unfortunately, we decided to pretend that it was all some sort of collegial effort - as if Tommy Franks had just stopped by Baghdad for a Sunday barbecue and took a couple of shots at a burglar he happened to find looting the garage while he was visiting.
Now, we have only two choices - either launch a major military offensive to destroy the militia, assign a military governor to Iraq, and stop playing patty-cake with other Arab governments, or set a date for withdrawal and let the situation devolve into Vietnam II.
I think it's already too late for the first option.
Sometimes FREEPERS are so hypocritical. They will turn on someone in a second. I can't believe it!!! My only hope is that these ones bashing are the ones that have been bashing the whole time. I can't tell you how many times this happens here. One minute the person is a saint. Then they say a comment and all of a suddent the same person is Satan.
If getting votes was as easy as getting headlines, then Gingrich might have a political future to look forward to. Of course, if getting votes were as easy as getting headlines, then Mr. Pickle Princess would be known as Mr. President.
Take any two major cities in this country, say Detroit and Washington, D.C. More americans are murdered here every month than in the Iraq. We need to pull out of Cleveland, it's a quagmire and a failure. Time to redeploy to Allentown. Newt has now had his Shark moment as far as I'm concerned. We re-align our strategies and tactics on a daily basis. Where the hell is Newt living not to know this, up Hillary's junk in the trunk?
And he makes sense.
Hard to argue.
Oh just wait. I'm sure some wit will call Newt a "surrender monkey" soon enough.
The alternative to that is to just shut up. Neither one of us can do that, right.
Maybe Newt is just pandering to the squishy middle with these comments.
Either way, I don't like politicians who pander. Newt's (I thought) better than that.
It was a great speech on C-Span last night.
I would love for as many people as possible to see it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.