Posted on 08/05/2013 8:12:29 AM PDT by mandaladon
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a leading neoconservative hawk and staunch supporter of Israel, says the U.S. military interventions he has long supported to promote democracy in the Middle East and elsewhere have backfired and need to be re-evaluated. “I am a neoconservative. 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,” the 2012 Republican presidential hopeful said in an interview.
Mr. Gingrich supported the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, but he said he has increasingly doubted the strategy of attempting to export democracy by force to countries where the religion and culture are not hospitable to Western values. “It may be that our capacity to export democracy is a lot more limited than we thought,” he said. Mr. Gingrich at times has expressed doubts about the U.S. capacity for nation-building, but he said he now has formed his own conclusions about their failures in light of the experiences of the past decade. “My worry about all this is not new,” Mr. Gingrich said. “But my willingness to reach a conclusion is new.” Mr. Gingrich said it is time for Republicans to heed some of the anti-interventionist ideas offered by the libertarian-minded Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, and Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, tea party favorite and foreign policy skeptic.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
“Their would be no issues here at all if we ‘intervened’ as we did from 1941-45 in a couple of locales...dont recall a peep from any of those areas in 75+ years....after our ‘intervention’”
We should have stay focused on Afghanistan, brought to their knees begging to surrender, and making them an example.
Instead we naïve relied on corrupt locals, lose bin Laden at Tora Bora, and now bug out.
Our career military is full of political Generals, who sell out their troops for a star.
We have not won a major war that stayed won, since WWII.
The reason is the “guilt” over dead civilians in Germany and Japan.
Does anyone listen to Newt anymore?
You know, when Newt takes the conservative view on things, few are better in articulating that particular conservative position. Problem with Newt is, he sometimes loses his common sense and just does stupid things. His view on global warming and sitting on a couch with Nancy Pelosi for a commercial. Lets also not forget is “evolving” on immigration (read: Amnesty).
Don’t misunderstand; it’s always good to have Newt on our side with all cylinders firing; problem is, I don’t always trust him.
Well he is very late to the party, we paleocons have been screaming "No No" to all the damn wars and "interventions" for well over 10 years now, if not longer. But Newt does deserve a tiny bit of credit in admitting he and all the other GD Neocons were wrong and we Paleocons were right.
I have to agree with those who think going into Iraq was a mistake. IMHO, it was a colossal blunder by Bush, one of several.
Newt has turned on me for the last time. I don’t trust him at all. He is trying to be relevant again, but he can KMA.
How does Gingrich miss the link between our domestic and foreign policy?
It starts with sealing our own borders and drilling for our own oil. Then stop funding every extremist regime or anyone with ties to them, including the UN. That will stop most of the crap. We are way to friendly with the enemy under the guise of trying to buy their friendship. Let’s see how they eat if we stop paying.
And if any government hosts or sponsors terrorists that plan to attack us, send in the drones and stealth bombers to destroy any infrastructure that allows them to communicate or travel, and flatten any place suspected of hiding terrorists.
WW II was the last war that there was a formal congressional declaration of war. Since they, we have utilized Constitution workarounds. We win when we get the nation behind it and draft 15,000,000 military for overwhelming force to win and occupy. No war since WW II has merited the complete support of the American people. The American people did support war on those involved in 9/11 but instead we attack Iraq 'because it was doable', they would welcome us with flowers and oil would pay for it. FUBAR.
Thee’s a Good Newt and a Bad Newt. God Newt is as good as they can get. Unfortunately, Bad Newt comes out, periodically and unpredictably, and compromises everything Good Newt just did. That’s basically why Romney beat him for the nomination.
We have no business nor moral authority to tell anyone what to do here at home, let alone our neighbors in the world, not as hypocritical and juvenile as we have become in our current national adolescence.
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"I have always given it as my decided opinion that no nation has a right to intermeddle in the internal concerns of another;
that every one has a right to form and adopt whatever government they liked best to live under themselves;
and that if this country could, consistently with its engagements, maintain a strict neutrality and thereby preserve peace,
it was bound to do so by motives of policy, interest, and every other consideration."
--George Washington, from Letter to James Monroe, August 25,1796
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"The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible.
So far as we have already formed engagements let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith.
Here let us stop."
-- George Washington, farewell address, 1796
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“That’s basically why Romney beat him for the nomination.”
Yeah sure. Romney outspending Newt 65 to 1 in Florida had nothing to do with it.
Please, this is nonsense.
The world-managing Anglo-American financial oligarchy runs the US gov’t, it’s foreign policy, “soft power projection”, CIA, etc., etc.
The oligarchy continues merrily on its way running things - and politicians obediently refuse to publicly acknowledge their true masters.
The oligarchy has been making moves in the mideast for over 100 years (for example, the MB key founder was an MI6 operative), and most of what the press says about them is a fairy tale. The oligarchy has their people placed at the top of all the intelligence services and can manufacture whatever situations they desire and the press will never report on it.
The current mideast has Israel and the muslim nations set up for whatever intervention the oligarchy wants, with just a little maneuvering, whether it’s all-out regional war or little wars within one country at a time.
The political “machines” in the US (including those in the schools, press and churches) are easily employed by the oligarchy to stir up public anger and support for war in the mideast. And the public mostly does not realize it’s fighting on behalf of the globalist financial oligarchy.
And billions of American taxpayer dollars continually go to the mideast through programs like USAID (to both sides of the conflict), money which is then spent buying from large US corporations (again, the oligarchy) that sell equipment, construction, military, etc., goods and services. Billions of dollars, almost half of which the taxpayer will pay in the future, since it’s borrowed from the oligarchy’s government bond market.
For decades, our foreign policies have been an utter disaster.
It’s looted the American treasure, corrupted government even more and laid waste to tens of thousands of Americans.
When the US liberated Kuwait, many people where upset that a democracy was not set up. A caller to Rush's show made a valuable point, Wars are not about Democracy, they are about Freedom (from invaders) The point he made is wars can be about national self-determination.
Even today McCain and Graham are running around in Egypt talking up Democracy, but democracy does not lead to individual rights. The people of Egypt got rid of a dictator and held election, but then installed an Islamic Republic. Islamic republics don't extend equal rights to religious minorities, women and (now the all important) Gay and Lesbians.
What's amazing is they can still get people to fight and die for them.
The only “winner” in the Iraq war was Iran.
It's only cost thousands of American lives and 2 trillion in tax dollars. We can just print more bucks and send the next batch of young folk...
Spit*
On a scary planet, full of deranged corrupt super wealthy looking for more war profits regardless of consequences, fortress America gets my vote...
Of course, it's too late for that, as government insiders and banksters/wealthy well connected globalist have us up to our necks in their for profit game.
Even people like Newt are sucked in by the idea of “democracy” but it doesn’t seem they ever give much thought to the exact character of the people they want to give the vote to.
Did they think the Arab countries were jam packed with American style conservatives just waiting for a chance to elect an arab clone of Ronald Reagan?
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