Regardless of your politics, you should give yourself a couple of minutes to hear what Newt Gingrich had to say at a recent National Press Club appearance. It’s a sobering assessment of what we’re really doing (or not doing) to fight the threat of radical Islam.
Of course, the former Speaker of the House is the same guy who fonged away the “Contract with America” back in the ‘90s, so he doesn’t necessarily have all the answers. But regardless of his political track record, he makes some interesting points here.
Watch the video and tell us what you think. Is Newt right?
(Gouge: WL)
– Ward
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
That was certainly a lot of blind fear mongering talk.
Backed up by a whole lot of naive war mongering.
You can
He is absolutely right. The war in Iraq, is now 17 years old. Huh? Yes, it began on 20 January, 1990. It was Gulf War at the time. We failed to finish it, maintained an active combat enforcing “no fly zones”, enjoined casualties, and then ramped it up again in 2003.
17 years. Longer than Nam.
Newts observation about the Israeli efforts for 30 years…in Gaza and Lebenon, is dead on.
But…what is most important is what he said at the end of his comments….not that the U.S. would rally upon the destruction of one of our cities….but that it would bring huge DETRIMENTAL effects to our liberties…..our own government, unable to deal with outside threats, will clamp down on it’s own with martial laws and infringement of liberties.
Time to prepare to become ex-pats? maybe, maybe.
hell of a thought though…….
War mongering?? What is and has always been the goal of Islam? Why do you think it is the largest religion in the world? By choice? Sure!!! by choice, convert or die, that’s not a hard choice. Newts right! If 9/11 didnt wake us up what will. A handfull of Saudis did all that damage to NY with no tools of there own except there will to DIE! What will happen when they get a nuke??? It’ll be OK!!! We’ll just hold hands with them. Have you even been to the Middle East?
Over Simplifications Half Truths Misrepresentations. Much like the facts used to back up the Contract with America. Stating that we defeated Nazi Germany and making this out as an American achievement, shows the intent to manipulate. Keep him away from serious discourse. If we want to battle Radical Islam buy less oil.
No, no I shouldn’t give myself a couple of minutes to hear what Newt Gingrich had to say.
Gingrich and his ilk have had their shot at running America, and also trying to run the world, and they’ve more or less run it straight into the ground.
Heck of a job …
People like Gingrich don’t deserve the sweat off of my balls, let alone my attention.
Gingrich’s statements are indeed disturbing, but in a way completely separate from his words.
Please watch this WW2-era film from Disney called “Reason and Emotion”. the parallels between this film and the arguments made by many politicians, liberal and conservative, are disconcerting to say the least.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvp3zAPraF4
Gingrich’s comments come directly from Hermann Goering’s play book, as dictated to Gustave Gilbert in the Nuremberg jail.
“Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. …Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
I think all of the comments on this have been solid and to an extent correct.
Islamic fundamentalism is not going to destroy this nation or the western way of life. Islamic fundamentalism will destroy the Middle East. What we have to do is get off of our dependence on foreign oil, and really our dependence on oil totally. Terrorists in the Middle East (and Venezeula) are making a ton of cold hard cash off of our need for oil. This gives them power in the world. Without oil they would be looked upon with the sympathy we now see in Africa, but with no power. A few thousand people die due to starvation, here is some wheat and rice from USAID.
The only way these people can defeat us is economically, forget about nuclear weapons. Who do we bow to for our energy needs? Who owns most of America’s debt today? At any time they can decide to bring us to our knees and the word “nuclear” will never be mentioned.
The thing I agree most with him on is his statement of secular society not understanding the motivations of “religious extremism”. We have to remember that Eric Rudolph was not a Muslim. Those baptists in Kansas that go around demonstrating at our brother’s and sister’s funerals are not Muslim. And yet they have the same convictions.
Also, please watch this short film called Chicken Little, also from the WW2 era. There are quite a few lessons we can apply.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_GaYdae4j0
You’re right, people need to realise how crazy he is. On top of being still locked into this ‘war against terror’ nonsense (is that the world’s most disastrous metaphor or what?), he takes it even further and wants to have a war against religious extremists.
(Deal with your own backyard first, Newt….)
And he’s trying to convince us that they’re a worse threat than the Soviets.
This kind of thing only works if people have short memories. Mujahideen in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabian government ring any bells?
The expat argument is one of the reasons I spend most of my time in west africa.
Love it or leave it. Well give me a political party that cares more about the survival of america as a nation and as an idea than about campaign dollars, special interests, and cronyism.
I might just stay here.
For those who call this war mongering, ask yourselves if those how conducted the 9-11 attacks would have used the strongest weapons at their disposal. Of course they would have.
Now ask yourself if there are thousands of others just as eager to launch such attacks as they were. Of course there are.
So you are basically banking on the fact that over the next decade or two, they won’t have the opportunity to get their hands on a dirty bomb, bio engineered weapons, or something similar. What reasoned assessment undergirds that conviction?
Or maybe you disagree with him on the tactics. That’s fine. What do you suggest?
But to dismiss this as warmongering and to draw parallels to Nazi propaganda is, respectively, naive and the most hypocritical kind of Orwellian tactic. I have to hand it to you for that kind of irony. Impressive.
Well the accusations of war-mongering are just silly and ignorant. Newt is a very bright guy and makes excellent points.
Gingrich’s main point is that we need to worry about how to protect our liberties. If you think we have over-reacted to 9-11, then just wait. Remember, our grandparents nuked Japan twice and locked up all Americans of Japanese descent. If we suffer a serious attack on one of our cities our response will be real wrath of god stuff, which so far we’ve refrained from.
Newt is a canny politician (although his revolutionary style and rhetoric meant he couldn’t lead for long after his 94 revolution). He understands America, he understands how the average American will react in the case of a major attack. The public mood has soured on Iraq, but not because the public agrees with the anti-war Left.
If we suffer serious attacks the public will turn to a “more rubble, less trouble” foreign policy and turn on the domestic leaders that failed to protect them. This inevitable public reaction is what Newt is warning against.
Terrorism is a *very* difficult problem to manage. Telling the public they are overreacting is not a real, wise, or effective solution.
You are right, Dave, that the terrorists cannot destroy the US as the Soviets could have. We needn’t worry that we will awaken tomorrow and find Iranian troops marching through Washington DC. But neither should we completely ignore people who launch attacks at us and our loved ones. London picked up after the subway bombings, but they also went after those responsible. Terrorists COULD strike anywhere at anytime. I also will not live my life in fear. But neither will I sit idly by and throw up my hands as though I could no more affect it than the whims of the gods. We SHOULD take action — both at the local level and at the national level. As you said, it’s time to put up or shut up.
Gingrich only stands out because he’s more bombastic than the Beltway norm. Tease the meaning out from all the jargonizing, and what you find is really mundane. If Gingrich had prescribed caution and prudence based on a clear-eyed and informed appraisal of external reality, **that** would be startling. Instead, we see the same old demagogue. Only a dope would find this this dog ‘n’ pony show at all novel or interesting. Let alone “sobering”(?!?!)
But hey, isn’t Ward the guy who was all giggly because he got to sit at the same table as The Decider? That’s the sort of mentality that helped get a fraud like Gingrich go as far as he did.
Dave.. it is warmongering talk. ;)
I understand your concern about another terrorist attack in the states.
(side note 1: you should demand a reinvestigation of 911 to get the full picture of what happened)
(Side note 2: dirty bombs are ineffective weapons. the fear factor is not though.)
I don’t think that preemptive wars solves anything in the long run. It only creates more problems.
And the people who hates you. will hate you even more. creating more incitement to terrorism because of your actions.
Lets say the US does a full scale invasion on Iran . Which they can
I’m mostly in agreement with the people calling this war-mongering propaganda. The real question I have for Newt is: what is the solution? I’m not interested in being scared anymore, so if you want me to listen to you, you had better bring a solution to propose.
Gentlemen,
I’m afraid – being a Euro-leftie – that Crusty Old Chief B has a point. I hate to admit it but Islam has a couple of nasty sides. I mean, every man and woman has the right to strive for happiness, every other should however respect that right. Also, I feel Muslim people generally have NO sense of humour.
The solutions, fully two of them, are apparently:
A- “wollen Sie den totalen Krieg”-style war, utterly destroying everything Musulman, killing oh, approx two billion people and not caring about it. Like Lenin said, “it doesn’t matter if the revolution kills two thirds of earth’s population, as long as the remaining third is happy”.
B- Getting the hell out of Dodge, locking ourselves up in our pretty fifties xenophobic mindstate. You would, however, have to live with the resulting police state.
Both ways suck.
My third solution is: put everything we have in space technology. There’s way to may people on this planet, more than the earth can support. Lots of people feel like sardines in a fish can, and a cornered sardine can, like you all know, bite your head off very, very easily. So leave three billion people on earth and shoot the rest of us (me first!) in the general direction of Alpha Centauri. We’ll still fight, we’ll still kill, we’ll still love, live and laugh.
It’s our destiny to spread our genes across the galaxy, not to fight among ourselves.
Why do we believe that Muslims treating their own like Christians did to their own 300 years ago is threatening?
The leaders of all Western nations kiss the backsides of the Prince’s in Saudi Arabia for two reasons: oil and debt. Look at what OPEC did in the late 70′s to our economy. What is the worst that can happen to them if they decide to stop selling us oil and loaning us money for our government debt? Oil prices go higher, oil is still bought by Western nations, their oil reserves shrink less, and they have more money to buy military weapons because they aren’t loaning it to us.
Does anybody realize they have more money than they know what to do with it, even after giving it to the fundamentalist clerics preaching jihad rhetoric? A prince over there just bought a brand new Airbus A380 as his private plane, A FRIGGIN A380!!!!!!!!
The downfall of this great nation will be done economically not militarilly. We need to wake up and create the next Manhattan project to get us off of the oil teet so that the Middle East cannot dominate us in the future.
Dave quotes Goering thus: “That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
I thought the United States has already been attacked – or did I just imagine the World Trade Centre bombings, Sept. 11 and the embassy bombings in Africa?
The ultimate answer to all this hooey is to remove the Islamofascists’ Number One resource: Oil.
We would have NONE of this crap were we not dependent on them for oil. It must be a source of great schadenfreude for the oil princes to take our petrodollars with one hand and give it to the terrorists with the other. Without oil they’re nothing more than primped up sand merchants.
A full press toward completely cutting them off would be the least costly in blood and treasure. It might take a shift to a wartime economy hellbent on developing nuclear, solar, wind, tidal, hydrogen, ethanol and anything else the geeks can come up with to keep the lights on and the freight rolling.
Tax petroleum until its absolutely unaffordable and drive the revenue into research and development of energy-other-than-oil.
Set aside 10% for the CIA to develop sneaky, underhanded operations in oil producing countries and for the NSA to develop a way to make Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadjimmijon babble like Steve Carell in “Bruce Almighty” whenever they speak in public. (It would be a bonus objective that they wet themselves, too.)
Cheers,
Chief B.