Even Gingrich wants to cut and run

April 11, 2006

When National Review’s William F. Buckley labeled the war in Iraq a failure, I was a little surprised. When Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly said the administration had made a “big mistake” with “the crazy-people underestimation,” and should “hand over everything to the Iraqis as fast as humanly possible,” this was even more unexpected. When Francis Fukuyama declared that neoconservatism “should be discarded on to history’s pile of discredited ideologies,” I had a check to make sure it was the same Fukuyama.

But for a really startling development, consider the fact that Newt has joined the cut-and-run caucus.

Newt Gingrich, the former Republican Speaker of the House, told students and faculty at the University of South Dakota Monday that the United States should pull out of Iraq and leave a small force there, just as it did post-war in Korea and Germany.

“It was an enormous mistake for us to try to occupy that country after June of 2003,” Gingrich said during a question-and-answer session at the school. “We have to pull back, and we have to recognize it.”

First, that Disappointed-in-Bush club is getting awfully big, isn’t it?

And second, who does Bush have left? At this point, the group of supporters for the president’s policy — which seems limited to John McCain and Joe Lieberman — could meet in a phone booth.

Update: In comments, Dan reminds us that Newt was involved in the war planning before, so it’s odd to hear him refer to the war as an “enormous mistake” now.

Second Update: ThinkProgress notes that it wasn’t long ago when Gingrich was blasting war critics who complained “we’re not winning fast enough.” Funny how times change.

Yeah, but it’s just a more subtle form of control, isn’t it? If they can’t keep you from seeing that the sky is blue (or gray, as the case may be) don’t they want you to in the end see them as someone who’s not trying to tell you that things are different than they actually are? And maybe Fukuyama is the one that fits in the least neatly with the rest of those. But Bill O’Reilly and New Gingrich earn no brownie points from me. They’re just little surrogate Goebells.

  • I think O’Reilly’s one of the ones who made a big mistake with “crazy people underestimation” and he’s trying to cover his ass now.

  • Even though we all know that Newt is a no good philandering sob,we also have to know when he citicizes Bush on the Iraq issue,the he (Bush) is in a heck of trouble.

  • “Victory has many fathers while defeat is an orphan.”

    Newt is trying to dodge the huge clusterfuck he helped in large part create.

    It seemed strange that suddenly Newty would cut and run, but I remembered some crap/gossip regarding the Defense Policy
    and how a certain Gingrich allegedly used his role in planning the Iraq mess to pump himself up.

    This link shows where Newty Toot had a role. Particularily with his dismissal of a large occupation force.

    http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2003_03_23_digbysblog_archive.html

  • “There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.”
    Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

    Even the Neo-Con gang realize that this President has crossed that line.

  • O’Lielly can take comfort in the fact that we will never underestimate what a crazy person he is.

  • Is this the same Gingrich who, a few weeks after the war was launched famously declared that the main problem was Colin Powell, since the State Department’s worldview was one of “process, politeness, and accommodation,” while Bush’s worldview was that of “facts, values and outcomes”? Et tu Newte?

  • Murtha was the lone voice but when he spoke truth .
    that now even Gingrich is joining in the ever growing call to unplug the Iraq war.
    A mighty avalanche begins with a small stone.

    Dems should not be so afraid to speak for their convictions for fear of being unpopular. We need leadership not followership.

  • Why do they hate America? Why do they hate the troops?

    Gag me with a chainsaw. Fuck these people. They can’t spend years blasting anyone who thought the war was a BIG MISTAKE from the get-go and then turn around– FLIP FLOP– and say we need to “cut and run.”

    Ten bucks says all these assholes line right up behind Bush if he says we need to bomb Iran. They’re only saying all this shit because it’s politically expedient to do so.

  • Bush – “Et tu, New-te?”

    (Of course, this would require Bush to have some cultual literacy)

  • “Murtha was the lone voice…” – kali

    Got that wrong. Lots of people opposed the war BEFORE it started, and critized the conduct of the war after it began.

    Murtha supported going to war with Iraq. Nothing about him makes him a lone voice. He just finally wised up sitting at the bedside of one of the maimed U.S. veterans he helped to create.

    I’m all for crediting Murtha with all his due, but let’s be accurate here.

  • “We gotta get outta this place,
    if it’s the last thing we ever do…”

    How much is a 1-way ticket to New Zealand?

    Seriously, though, (and I say this from a VERY RED STATE (IN), I’m going to find a congressional candidate who is underfunded and will go toe to toe with his opponent in Novemeber. I’m gonna move into his hq and do whatever it takes to get him elected. We have to take the House back seat-by-seat. Local politics is retail.
    The time is now.

  • I think “hung out to dry” is a more accurate term than Rove’s “cut and run” expression. Cutting and running is a term that non-combatants love because it saves their honor and political hides to have a graceful exit where they can claim victory.

    What’s happening now is Bush and his cronies are hanging the U.S. Armed Forces out to dry by forcing our soldiers to remain in a conflict that has been made unwinnable by civilian incompetence and hubris. Soldiers are dying simply to save Bush’s prestige and help the Republicans do better in the midterm elections.

  • Newt’s just posturing as he mulls a 2008 run. He’ll probably define himself as a Republican who early on recognized that the war was awry. He won’t get elected anyway, regardless.

  • Don’t get excited. Newt wants to leave the troops there for 60 plus years.
    “leave a small force there, just as it did post-war in Korea and Germany.”
    He still wants permanent bases. That was the plan.

  • Foot caught in bear trap. Hands tied behind back. Terrorists take down WTC, smash pentagon. George said in his first statement after 911, “Go to your churches, temples, synagogues, mosques and pray.” I can’t wait to hear how Newt’s stands on prayer as the solution to problems.

    Someone please call Pat Robertson and find out if Newt won the 2008 election.

    Those who voted the abortion issue can now enjoy the abortion of a government that brought us. Will Newt continue to embrace the evangelicals? Right, DKS he won’t win no matter what God says and we know already what that is, the neocon-servant of God shall occupy the white house. Wasn’t abortion a big part of the Contract with America? Confidentially, I don’t associate with abortions if I can possibly help myself and I can help myself.

  • The Republicans never cared about the Iraqi people before the war and they only pretended to want them to have democracy when their real reasons for the war failed. This is just more of them saying “screw the Iraqi people” even if it happens to be the right thing to do.

  • You left out George Will among the conservative voices who said the war has failed and to get out now. Of course in his very obtuse and pedantic way, but the message was the same, nonetheless.

  • MoveOn ad for 2008:

    “Newt was for the war before he was against it.”

    Now, if they can only get someone to show it………..

  • Lance- you are right that Murtha wasn’t the first, but he was damned lonely on floor of the House. It took a war hero to break the ice in congress.

  • I see the UCC ad on CNN quite a bit. Exactly what’s wrong it, I ask? And how does it deviate from the teachings of Jesus?

    Newt is the opportunist who can’t seem to grasp the reality that his time has past. His stint as Speaker was marginal at best. I heard him on NPR about a year or so ago, and he basically gave himself credit for everything that went right during the 1990s, and how this will solidify his “legacy”. Clinton’s legacy, on the other hand, will be that he was impeached, but survived removal from office.
    The man is a showboat, if not worse.

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