Posted on 08/03/2007 12:48:30 PM PDT by AfterManyASummer
Gingrich says war on terror 'phony' Former speaker says energy independence is key
By BOB DEANS The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 08/03/07
Washington — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Thursday the Bush administration is waging a "phony war" on terrorism, warning that the country is losing ground against the kind of Islamic radicals who attacked the country on Sept. 11, 2001.
A more effective approach, said Gingrich, would begin with a national energy strategy aimed at weaning the country from its reliance on imported oil and some of the regimes that petro-dollars support. • More Nation/World news
"None of you should believe we are winning this war. There is no evidence that we are winning this war," the ex-Georgian told a group of about 300 students attending a conference for collegiate conservatives.
Gingrich, who led the so-called Republican Revolution that won the GOP control of both houses of Congress in 1994 midterm elections, said more must be done to marshal national resources to combat Islamic militants at home and abroad and to prepare the country for future attack. He was unstinting in his criticism of his fellow Republicans, in the White House and on Capitol Hill.
"We were in charge for six years," he said, referring to the period between 2001 and early 2007, when the GOP controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. "I don't think you can look and say that was a great success."
Thursday's National Conservative Student Conference was sponsored by the Young America's Foundation, a Herndon, Va.-based group founded in the 1960s as a political counterpoint to the left-leaning activists who coalesced around the civil rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam War.
Gingrich retains strong support among conservatives and ranked fifth among possible Republican nominees behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, with the backing of 7 percent of those queried in a ABC News/Washington Post poll taken last week. The poll surveyed 403 Republicans and Republican-leaning adults nationwide and has a 5 percentage-point margin of error.
"I believe we need to find leaders who are prepared to tell the truth ... about the failures of the performance of Republicans ... failed bureaucracies ... about how dangerous the world is," he said when asked what kind of Republican he would back for president.
Gingrich has been promoting a weekly political newsletter he calls "Winning the Future." It's available free to those who leave their e-mail addresses at
www.winningthefuture
.net, one of several Web sites he is connected with or operating. Gingrich began writing the newsletter in April 2006, and it now goes out to 311,000 readers each week, said Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler.
Political salon
At another Web site — www.americansolutions
.com — Gingrich is running a virtual political salon, with video clips, organizational information and contacts revolving around his conservative vision for the country's future. It asks supporters to join in an Internet "Solutions Day" on Sept. 27, the anniversary of Gingrich's so-called Contract With America, a slate of conservative policies he led through Congress as speaker of the House a decade and a half ago.
"What I'm trying to start is a new dialogue that is evidence-based," Gingrich said Thursday. "It doesn't start from the right wing, it doesn't start from the left wing," he said, but is an effort to get politicians and voters to "look honestly at the evidence of what isn't working and tell us how to change it."
Gingrich was interrupted with applause once, when he called for an end to the biting partisanship critics say has polarized national politics and paralyzed the workings of government.
"We have got to get past this partisan baloney, where I'm not allowed to say anything good about Hillary Clinton because 'I'm not a loyal Republican,' and she's not allowed to say anything good about me, or she's not a 'loyal' Democrat. What a stupid way to run a country."
He reserved his most pointed criticism for the administration's handling of the global campaign against terrorist groups.
"We've been engaged in a phony war," said Gingrich. "The only people who have been taking this seriously are the combat military."
His remarks seemed to reflect, in part, the findings of a National Intelligence Estimate made public last month.
In the estimate, the U.S. intelligence community concluded that six years of U.S. efforts to degrade the al-Qaida terrorist group had left the organization constrained but still potent, having "protected or regenerated" the capability to attack the United States in ways that have left the country "in a heightened threat environment."
"We have to take this seriously," said Gingrich.
"We used to be a serious country. When we got attacked at Pearl Harbor, we took on Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany," he said, referring to World War II.
"We beat all three in less than four years. We're about to enter the seventh year of this phony war against ... [terrorist groups], and we're losing."
Successful approach
Gingrich said he would lay out in a Sept. 10 speech what a successful U.S. approach to this threat would have looked like over the past six years.
"First of all, we have to have a national energy strategy, which basically says to the Saudis, 'We're not going to rely on you,' " he said.
The United States imports about 14 million barrels of oil a day, making up two-thirds of its total consumption.
A friendly Frid aft. ping :-)
It's not the "energy strategy," IT'S THE INFIDELS, STUPID! Ask the muzzies!
He would never win, so he should just shut up and find something constructive t do.
You are correct.
The other half is that (at least in the article) Newt fails to mention that In WW II we had serious allies that were also committed to the struggle against Fascism.
With Fascism re-emergent in the Middle East with a nearly inexhaustible supply of money our traditional allies are cowering in fear of offending the rich Arabs to which there economies are enthralled. Europe is also so crippled by their fear of being seen to be xenophobic or illiberal that than insist on being blind to the threat with in their own boarders that is the ballooning Muslim immigrant population.
Newt is correct but he is too busy image polishing to be blunt.
Yeah, it seems like, the past few days, he and McCain have been smoking a little whacky Tobacky
God forbid that President Bush get any good reporting on this.
LoL. Helmet hair is usually a red flag. Newt loves Newt.
The 'pubbies were just so happy to be back in control, they abandoned the Christians/conservatives that put them in office. Spit on us for electing them back to a majority? Their accomplishments could have been so much greater.
No - he's alluding to the funding of terrorists with oil revenues, and decreasing the importance of that region to us.
I think Newt is wrong in using the phrase "losing the war", I don't think we are losing. But we just might snatch a defeat from the jaws of victory. I do share his dissatisfaction with us fighting with one hand behind our back, being too PC, not being consistent, aggressive enough, and committed enough. I am talking about the country as a whole, not a military that does its job brilliantly and is learning on the fly. Here is an excerpt from Pinkerton's article that better explains the historical reference to the "phony war":
"So when Gingrich, 64, speaking yesterday at a breakfast hosted by The American Spectator, declared that America is fighting a "phony war" against Islamic terrorism, he knew that listeners would recall that the same phrase - "phony war" - was used to describe the six-month period in 1939-40 when Churchill's predecessor, Neville Chamberlain, sat passively as the Wehrmacht gathered its strength for the coming blitzkrieg.
Gingrich's obvious point was that President George W. Bush has not been an effective war leader for Americans. And as a subpoint for Republicans, Gingrich was blunt: If in 2008 the GOP is still in the "Bush era" psychologically, it will be clobbered politically. By this reckoning, the Republican Gingrich is urging the same intra-party "clean break" with the Republican Bush that Churchill made with Chamberlain, a fellow Conservative, seven decades ago.
Another steady champion of military preparedness was Charles de Gaulle, who watched helplessly as his beloved France stood equally inert against the threat from Hitler. De Gaulle kept the faith from exile in London and, after the Allies liberated France in 1944, came briefly to political power."
Newt does not blame military at all (quotes from the posted article): "We've been engaged in a phony war," said Gingrich. "The only people who have been taking this seriously are the combat military." "We have to take this seriously," said Gingrich.
"We used to be a serious country. When we got attacked at Pearl Harbor, we took on Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany," he said, referring to World War II. "We beat all three in less than four years. We're about to enter the seventh year of this phony war against ... [terrorist groups], and we're losing."
Okay - losing is a bad choice of rhetoric. But we are not winning as you and I would like. He is being impatient with words, but the underlining message is correct: we could have done better.
I think many here are too quick to call him names. Newt wants to win this no less than any of us. Anyway, running off his mouth like that is not mature. Looks like I'll have to downgrade him to the VP position.
Next he will be touting his support for ending global warming as an anti-terrorism tactic...
Ying Yang...
jveritas, I'm not an envious person, but if I were I'd envy you your unshakeable optimism. Unfortunately, it isn't based in reality. Hillary is going to win the women's vote and win it big-time.
Decades of pervasive feminist brainwashing, Oprahfication and cultural conditioning of women's attitudes have laid the groundwork and prepared the way for such a "Hillary moment", whether for her specifically, or someone like her. It is the culmination of one facet of a long-term Gramscian strategy of remaking the institutions of our civil society.
Despite their generally conservative political attitudes and even their oft-expressed protestations that they would never vote for Hillary, millions of women, of all types, when in the privacy of the voting booth will be unable to resist the cultural compulsions so deeply-ingrained in them over decades and forego the opportunity to elect "one of their own". They will all "have their reasons", and those reasons will vary widely and even be contradictory, but it will happen.
I'm on your side. I hope you are right, but sadly, I don't think so.
And what he meant by that is that we are pulling our punches.
_____________________
In that case, it’s a correct statement. We have been pulling our punches in this PC war..........and that will lose it for us!
That would be a politically suicidal assumption to make.
“Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Thursday the Bush administration is waging a “phony war” on terrorism, warning that the country is losing ground against the kind of Islamic radicals who attacked the country on Sept. 11, 2001.”
What a jerk he’s become!! A couple of months ago he’s kissing Kerry’s tush at a so-called global warming debate now it seems like he’s auditioning for Hillary’s running mate. Don’t trust this draft-dodging twerp, yeah he hid in the corner during Nam...screw him.
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