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 ...
Exactly.
Yep. We could have declared victory and had a parade-- the works. Instead, we got greedy.
American troops can be in Germany and Japan because the war was fought against Germans and Japanese who supported by and large their evil leaders and were unquestionably beaten. In Iraq, the war was against Saddam and his power base who dominated the arabians living in the land mass called Iraq.
The arabs living there, in those times and now have less allegiance to a thing called Iraq, (IMHO) and probably more interest in stability rather than style of government.
Someone finally telling the emporer he has no clothes!
Newt's whole point was that Bush needs to actually call it a failure in public so that the forgiveness and healing can begin and Bush can try to get America to support continued action in Iraq, probably with a new congressional resolution.
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.
The first goal in Iraq, Gingrich said, should be to rebuild the national military, even if it requires spending tantamount to the Marshall Plan effort in the aftermath of World War II, in which the United States spent up to 3 percent of its gross domestic product.
"We have to show we are serious about winning and that we will defeat any person, Sunni or Shi'ite, that hopes to disrupt progress," he said. "But we can only do that if we have Iraqi troops on the ground."
That is not even remotely true.
I think we have the will to KILL the enemy and win - but not the will for the nation building going on now.
Rebuilding Iraq should happen AFTER we have won, it should not be a strategy to "win hearts and minds". But, what do I know?
So you're OK with waiting another 100 years to make a decision?
There won't be many casualties by then, I'm sure.
Iraq is producing more electricity and oil than they were prior to the war. Roads, hospitals, schools, water and sewage treatment plants, etc. have been built. It's infrastruture is in better shape today than before the war.
"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."
EXACTLY!!! Before people call Newt all kind of names and bash him for being twice-divorced (everyone's favorite thing to bring up since there no arguing w/ his political mind or ability to win), we should all investigate what he actually said.
Failure Newt? Tell the store owners who now can run their stores without fear of their government, tell that to the girls now going to school, tell that to the residents who nowe have electricity when they never had it before, tell that to those families who have sacrificed EVERYTHING and are now seeing improvements they never knew before- Failure Newt? Nice to see you switching sides- at least your true nature is being revealed before elections- thanks for the insight newt- think I'll be voting for soemone who has standards & doesn't play politics by catering to the opposite side! http://sacredscoop.com
Newt's chances to win the nomination just went from 2% to ZERO. Though he might still qualify to be Hillary's running mate.
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