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 ...
I am torn trying to make a decision. Jiffy-Pop or Orville Redenbacher's?
http://www.orville.com/gateway?waf.action=P01Products&mnav=products
Newt has just thrown my vote for him into the "other" category. He's as much a political whore as others hoping to join the media me-too wagon.
Oh but Newt is the best Republican choice for 2008!!! /sarc
The radical Islamic cleric version of John Gotti.
please, if Newt wants to run, he will be a factor. The guy is a brilliant mind and just because he says something critical about the administration doesn't make him an idiot.
The war was a tremendous victory. A complicated rebuilding is still on going but is no failure by any means.
Of course, the weiniefied American people believe ANY casualities means we have lost even when those casualties are not even half those incurred taking small islands in WWII.
Treason Media lack of perspective and distortions have demoralized the American people.
WE HAVE THE WINNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is an absolutely brilliant analogy. Precisely spot-on.
Nuck Fewt
The war went well.
It is the nation-building that is going badly.
Constructing skyscrapers with mud blocks is NEVER a good idea.
We can build some pretty decent single-story structures with mud bricks, if we also put in some reinforcements of other sturdier materials.
Once practice with these stronger materials has been proven out, then more complex structures may be built.
Similarly, we tried to create a full-blown democracy in a country that does not have any cultural or historical guide for its deployment and implementation.
And what we shold have been doing is creating a grass-roots sort of government from the bottom up.
But that takes a long time.
Totally wrongheaded. Admitting failure will not win forgiveness and healing. The Dems and the MSM will pounce on it and call it a tragic waste of American treasure and blood. We will hear Kerry's line about, "How can you ask someone to be the last man to die for a mistake [failure]? Admitting failure will have a serioius negative impact on troop morale.
The Dems and the MSM have been pressing Bush for years to admit what mistakes were made. Once Bush admits his mistakes, they then jump on them like sharks smelling blood. In 2008, the Reps in Congress will be asked to admit that they supported a failure. It may help Newt for his personal political ambitions, but it doesn't help the GOP or the American people.
People have short memories. Newt started out well with his campaign to take over congress, but he went downhill from there. It wasn't just his divorce problems, either. In his last year in office, he was desperately trying to play ball with clinton.
Newt is NOT a good presidential candidate. He talks the talk, loud and shrill and offensively, but he doesn't walk the walk. That's the worst of both worlds. He will turn off the swing voters, but he can't be relied on to stick to the conservative path.
There is a fairly large number of people who seem to be more in the grip of a GW Bush personality cult than have any conservative ideology.
Newt is stating the obvious. What is going on now is not working all that well, and we need to admit that before we can rethink the strategy to win (*not* withdrawal).
I hope Freepers are past their love affair with Newt.
But he'll never be President.
It's the Newtster that's a failure.
I expect him to have a McCain Moment any day now, and simply implode.
I'm not so sure with all of the judicial insanity flowing like wine. Judicial insanity like not allowing the Commander in Chief prosecute the war for our survival. Political Correctness is actually going to kill us.
The next generation is much more conservative than we are having seen what several generations of left-wing initiatives produces.
I hope you are right. I would certainly like to see some sort of proof of this.
And when are we pulling the troops out of Cuba? It's been 108 years and still no exit strategy?
I agree with you. But the problem isn't US or people with the same ideals as us, it is the people who hate America and all she stands for.
I agree with Newt, but for a different reason. To me, any war that you aren't fighting to win is a failure. Now, I am not saying our troops aren't fighting, they are. I am saying that the PC, lets not hurt anyone's feelings/can't do this or that crowd took over this war long ago and rather than doing what was necessary to win, we have pussy footed around. For example, Iran is a problem in this war, yet is being treated like it was on the dark side of the moon vis-a-vis Iraq.
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