September 2004: Gingrich Blasts Critics of Iraq War Who ‘Complain We’re Not Winning Fast Enough’
September 2004: Gingrich Blasts Critics of Iraq War Who ‘Complain We’re Not Winning Fast Enough’
Yesterday, former House speak Newt Gingrich declared that the occupation of Iraq has been a mistake for the last 34 months:
It was an enormous mistake for us to try to occupy [Iraq] after June of 2003.
For Gingrich, it’s a dramatic reversal. In December 2003 (six months after he claimed the occupation of Iraq became a mistake), Gingrich expressed his support for the continuing operations:
I think it’s easy to go back now and second-guess. But when I look back and I think about what we felt in February and March and April, I think it was the right war, it was the right decision. [Fox, Hannity & Colmes, 12/8/03]
In September 2004 (15 months after he says the occupation was a mistake) Gingrich blasted critics who complained “we’re not winning fast enough”:
And instead of applauding this deliberate effort to minimize American casualties and to strengthen the Iraqis, we have some of our friends here at home who want it both ways. They want to complain that we’re not winning fast enough, and they want to complain if we take any casualties. You can’t have it both ways. [Fox, Hannity & Colmes, 9/27/04]
Meet the new Newt. Nothing like the old Newt.
UPDATE: Salon’s War Room finds another good Gingrich quote from 1/19/06: “I think it’s quite clear…that bin Laden and his lieutenants are monitoring the American news media, they’re monitoring public opinion polling, and I suspect they take a great deal of comfort when they see people attacking United States policies.”
UPDATE II: Gingrich persuades the Argus Union Leader to change its headline, claiming his position on Iraq has been “consistent and clear.“
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50 Responses to “September 2004: Gingrich Blasts Critics of Iraq War Who ‘Complain We’re Not Winning Fast Enough’”
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New Newt doesnt like the Old Newt. But why would he care? His supporters cant think about this so complex.
April 11th, 2006 at 11:22 amThe truth about the war in Iraq is that it has become as unbelievable as any of the Bush Cabal.
No matter how anybody spins it, it’s a lost cause.
The Bush Administration is mad about how everything has become because it didn’t go the way they thought it should.
But, hey, all is fair in love and war.
Abu Ghraib proved it.
8000 deserters have already voted with their feet, they aren’t going to wait until November. They want to live with a clear conscience.
Newt Gingrinch is already campaigning for the Republicans.
Newt should sympathize with deserters. He deserted his first wife.
The last refuge of a scoundrel…
‘Republican’ bums coming out of the woodwork these days, eh?
April 11th, 2006 at 11:34 amOff topic (or is it?)
Must Watch
April 11th, 2006 at 11:36 amIm waiting for Hannity, O”lielly, Malkin, Hewitt and the rest of them to rip him a new one for demoralizing our troops….Im still waiting….
I8RETHUGS
April 11th, 2006 at 11:37 amNewt Gingrich has always been a flip flopper > he has read the tea leaves on the Bush Regime and discovered that a majority of Americans want the Iraq war ended and Bush impeached! Newt wants to claim now that he was never for the war > this is called covering his ass! Watch for more Republicans to do this and Democrats who backed the war too!
April 11th, 2006 at 11:41 amSo, where are all the trolls calling ‘ol Newt a traitor? Or that he’s aiding and abetting the terrorists? You’re either with Pres. Bush or you’re against America?
I guess they’re starting to realize how much Pres. Bush has screwed America and our military.
April 11th, 2006 at 11:43 amThe military should not have gone over there in the first place. Now it is certain that there will be American troops in Iraq for years to come.
Democracy has to be built from the bottom up.
April 11th, 2006 at 11:56 am[…] Think Progress: Meet the new Newt. Nothing like the old Newt. Related Posts: […]
April 11th, 2006 at 11:57 amIt must now be officially safe to criticize Bu$h and the Iraq war…the line’s starting to get as long as a Latino protest march. Good, real good, it’s all good.
April 11th, 2006 at 12:02 pmShe is a witch.
She turned me into a newt.
You don’t look like a newt.
I got better.
-paraphrased from memory, Monty Python
April 11th, 2006 at 12:09 pmya’ll really must have something for The Who…
April 11th, 2006 at 12:11 pmFlip Flop: Gingrich Wants Out Of Iraq…
Former right-wing speaker of the House Newt Gingrich changes course, decides to be against US……
April 11th, 2006 at 12:13 pmNews from an alternate universe?
Newt reveals that for the last decade or so, his evil robot double, N.E.W.T., had taken his place. Apparently the Republican party, in a bid to subvert the press, has been replacing reporters, pundits and just about anyone who was likely to speak against them in the press with lap-bots, the real Newt only managed to escape when his bot went bezerk, well, more bezerk then usual while enforcing the first law of Republican Robotics (Thou shalt not harm the Republican Party, or through inaction allow the Republican Party to come to harm.)
N.E.W.T. was last seen enforcing this prime directive all over the face of GWB, after coming to the conclusion that the Bush administration has done more harm to the Republican Party then any Democrat ever could.
April 11th, 2006 at 12:14 pmI think the attitude of Republicans towards Bush can be described by three words: “Cut and run.”
April 11th, 2006 at 12:17 pmfunny how I don’t care what gnuite has to say…ever. He proved a long time ago he is an idiot, and will never change.
April 11th, 2006 at 12:27 pmmadashell - That is some of the funniest shit I think I have ever seen!
Thanks for the laugh man!
April 11th, 2006 at 12:28 pmComment by G.W.SuperChrist — April 11, 2006 @ 12:28 pm
Hilarious - YES - but disgusting and sad at the same time!
April 11th, 2006 at 12:35 pmNewt is a despicable opportunistic liar.
I’ll never forget when he tried to blame Susan Smith’s murder of her very own children on liberals and the media.
The press always seems to forget what a sick human he is.
Link here.
April 11th, 2006 at 12:50 pmPoor neocons, I almost feel sorry for them .. almost.
April 11th, 2006 at 1:10 pmHe’s a lying snake. Most worriesome is whether or not he will try running for dictator in 2008. DO NOT TRUST THIS JUDAS.
April 11th, 2006 at 1:10 pm#10..
April 11th, 2006 at 1:15 pmQ: “What also floats?”
A: “Very small rocks!”
(also from Monty Python, in fact, the same scene, in the same movie)
The whole skit (witch trial, from M.P. and the Search for the Holy Grail) is a hilarious and prophetic send-up of how the current administration and their attendant wight-wing wacktoids create their justifications and fabrications through an endless stream (puddle?) of irrelevant non-sequiters
RE: Noot’s January comment about American media being monitored by the terr’ists……..
April 11th, 2006 at 1:27 pmThey applaud every utterance by the War Mongerers, the Fear Purveyors, and all the other assorted dregs from the bottom of the American political barrel.
They’ve got us exactly where they want us, overextended, in the middle of a turkey shoot in Iraq; and quaking in our beds at home.
They (Newt, Kristol and the rest) are losers who are in total denial of said fact.
Dumbya is a long time loser as well, the stupid failed car salesman has simply bought a bigger lemon for himself than he ever conceived of peddling.
Very amusing that Newt Gingrich who resigned from his leadership in the House of Representatives, and helped to foment war on Iraq, now claims that Bush errored in occupying Iraq > lol. Just like his dirty protege Tom DeLay who is in the process of leaving the Congress for corruption, but as he departs he calls Rep. Cynthia McKinney a dirty racist and cop beater >lol. It is DeLay who is a racist and he should be ashamed of himself for sliming McKinney!
April 11th, 2006 at 1:45 pmmadashell, I just send that as a reply to a guy who sends me wingnut crap all the time. Thanks
April 11th, 2006 at 2:02 pmhttp://www.newt.org/multimedia/mm_list.asp?ci=5
TP and it’s source (Huffington) is misrepresenting what Newt said. He criticized the CPA in the Summer of 2003, but said nothing about retreating.
TP caught in another big lie.
April 11th, 2006 at 2:18 pmTP and it’s source (Huffington) is misrepresenting what Newt said.
Comment by Jumping Jack Flash — April 11, 2006 @ 2:18 pm
The source is a newspaper called “Editor and Publisher”, not the HuffingtonPost.
April 11th, 2006 at 2:48 pmBin Laden doesn’t have to read the polls to know that we are in a mess. Way before Georgie started this war, MANY people were pointing out the possibilities that are today’s facts in Iraq. He had only to wait because he knows something that the American Public conveniently forgot about this illegal war we were lied into. It’s not complicated, what he knows. Just two things:
1) The war was a stupid war because it didn’t address the real enemy… him.
2) You cannot make sugar from salt.
Once we stepped across that Iraqi border, all he had to do was wait.
April 11th, 2006 at 2:51 pmThe taste in your mouth?
Salt.
#26,
TP links to Huffington that links to ArgusLeader.com. Huffington lies about what Newt said, then TP repeats the lie and adds a new one.
What TP says Gingrich said, but never said:
Gingrich declared that the occupation of Iraq has been a mistake for the last 34 months.
What Huffington says Gingrich said, but never said:
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.
Where’s TP’s link to “Editor and Publicher”?
April 11th, 2006 at 3:01 pmGingrich’s position of Iraq has been consistent and clear:
1. The decision by Paul Bremer to go from a liberation model to an occupation model in June 2003 was a major mistake (Gingrich first said this publicly in December 2003).
2. The United States needs to train the Iraqis as rapidly as possible and “pull back” from the cities to bases and air fields and serve as reinforcers as opposed to occupiers (this position is outlined in today’s WSJ as the official policy).
3. The United States is likely to need to keep some forces in Iraq for a very long time (Gingrich has been saying this as far back in 2003).
The Argus Leader has change their headline to reflect what he actually said.
http://www.argusleader.com/ apps/ pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/ 20060411/ NEWS/ 604110311&SearchID=73241245401713
Listen for yourself.
Links to speech.
Stream: http://media.streamtoyou.com/newt/sdclip.mp3
Dwnld: http://www.newt.org/mediafiles/sdclip.mp3
April 11th, 2006 at 3:07 pm“Dramatic reversal”
April 11th, 2006 at 3:12 pmHell no, it’s a round off flip, flop, double-back!
Where’s TP’s link to “Editor and Publicher�
Comment by Jumping Jack Flash — April 11, 2006 @ 3:01 pm
Follow the link to the Huffington Post. They have the link.
Standard practice in all blogs.
April 11th, 2006 at 3:16 pmMea fucking Culpa asshole.
April 11th, 2006 at 3:18 pmTP repeats the lie and adds a new one.
What TP says Gingrich said, but never said:
“Gingrich declared that the occupation of Iraq has been a mistake for the last 34 months.”
Comment by Jumping Jack Flash — April 11, 2006 @ 3:01 pm
What Gingrinch said: “It was an enormous mistake for us to try to occupy [Iraq] after June of 2003.”
April 2006 - June 2003 = 34 months.
wwallace, you are in dire need of remedial math classes.
April 11th, 2006 at 3:19 pmGingrich’s position of Iraq has been consistent and clear:
1. The decision by Paul Bremer to go from a liberation model to an occupation model in June 2003 was a major mistake (Gingrich first said this publicly in December 2003).
2. The United States needs to train the Iraqis as rapidly as possible and “pull back” from the cities to bases and air fields and serve as reinforcers as opposed to occupiers (this position is outlined in today’s WSJ as the official policy).
3. The United States is likely to need to keep some forces in Iraq for a very long time (Gingrich has been saying this as far back in 2003).
The Argus Leader has change their headline.
http://www.argusleader.com/ apps/ pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/ 20060411/ NEWS/ 604110311&SearchID=73241245401713
Links to speech.
Stream: http://media.streamtoyou.com/newt/sdclip.mp3
Dwnld: http://www.newt.org/mediafiles/sdclip.mp3
Here is a transcript of the part of the speech dealing with Iraq:
TRANSCRIPT: Newt Gingrich Answers Question Regarding the War in Iraq, at the University of South Dakota (April 10, 2006).
QUESTIONER: Well, as the last person to talk at the microphone let me thank you for coming tonight and speaking to us.
I found your history lesson, so to speak, very interesting, and when you talked about Edmund Burke. I had never heard of Edmund Burke until today, and you talked about how he supported the American Revolution because it was organic, and not the French Revolution because it was more mechanical, or felt more forced, is the way I looked at it.
And I was wondering, if we look at that framework of conservatism, how is it okay for the United States to be in a war with Iraq which does appear to be for the export … or for the idea of exporting democracy, even though it does appear to be very mechanical and not very organic, or in other words, like, it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of Iraqi support at the time or even right now, if you look at it, for us to be there, so how can we support this exporting of democracy if it’s so mechanical?
NEWT GINGRICH: That’s very … well, I mean, first of all, that’s very interesting.
There’s no question that we are, by the standards of the Arab world, a radical way of doing business. As somebody earlier mentioned, if you look at Mubarak, if you look at Assad, if you look at all the various dictatorships, our effort to create democracy is clearly cutting across the pattern of the last hundred years, in which various dictators have dominated, and I think exploited, and I think frankly held back the Arab world. So in that sense, as an external force, we’re radical.
On the other hand, when you go out and you look at the polling data in Iraq, well over eighty percent of the people of Iraq want freedom. The overwhelm … you know, look at the overwhelming number who voted twice now. Here are people, think of the millions of people who knew they were risking death. I talked to somebody in … who had been in Afghanistan, where … and frankly one of the mistakes we made in Iraq was a Burkean mistake. If you look at what we did in Afghanistan … I’ll give you two pieces of this now and I’ll wrap up. I appreciate you letting me be with you tonight.
The first is, if you look in Iraq, the biggest mistake we made was in June of 2003 when we did something mechanical, which was try to impose an American proconsul, named Jerry Bremer, on an Iraqi population. It was totally outside the … you know … antithetical model. We had just proven in Afghanistan in 2002, we invented Karzai in three weeks.
It actually occurred in a meeting in Bonn, Germany. Because we got all the key Afghans in a room and we said to them, somebody who’s an Afghan has to run this place and they ought to be a Pashtun because it’s far and away the biggest tribe, which is a very Burkean, organic model. Well, Karzai, who is a relatively weak, but I think slowly gaining strength, leader – we have had none of the nationalist rebellion in Afghanistan. The Russians have been amazed because none of the things that happened to the Russians have happened to Americans in Afghanistan, because people relaxed and said, oh they’re here as liberators, quit, you know, quit worrying about them.
Okay, we had the same opportunity in May of 2003 in Iraq, and in fact Khalilzad who’s now the ambassador, who did it in Afghanistan, was poised to do it in Iraq, and we did precisely a mechanical thing. We imposed an American, who not only disbanded the Iraqi army, which meant we had to police the streets, which is a stunningly bad idea, but we also ended up with this American giving a speech once a week on television.
I mean, can you imagine, and this is your point, can you imagine anything more outsider than having an American speak on television in English, reporting to the Iraqi people once a week to kind of remind them psychologically, we’re here as your conquerors? It’s utterly un-Burkean, so there I, there I would agree with you and I think it was a terribly painful lesson.
But now look at where we are today. Somebody said to … who had been in Afghanistan, said to me, when they had the first election in Afghanistan that they were in a village where the women the night before went through all the rites for dying, because they were going to vote the next morning and they expected the Taliban to kill them.
Now in a country where it’s hard to get people to turn out to vote, before you assume the people don’t like to be free because they happen to be Muslim, or they don’t like to be free because they happen to be Arab, look at the courage of people who walked literally miles—because remember we closed down all the vehicles—they walked to get to their polling places, they walked past signs that said we will kill you, they walked by soldiers who were trying to guard them from car bombs, and they walked by the millions.
Now it is a mess. Why is it a mess? Cause it’s a mess, it’s a fact. It’s going to be a mess for a while. But it’s a mess of pretty darn brave people who have cast—over 80 percent of them have cast a ballot twice. And they have indicated that if we will have patience and we will have courage that they will have the courage to risk dying.
Remember, most of the people who die everyday now are Iraqis. So this is not about the Iraqis cutting and running. This is about one group of brave Iraqis who want a democracy versus a much smaller group of vicious thugs who hope that they can kill and murder and terrorize to get back to a dictatorship. And that’s what’s at stake. And yes it’s a hard thing to do, but so was the civil war, so was Washington crossing the Delaware, so was winning the cold war. And we may lose this fight, but if we lose it there will be millions of Iraqis who lose it with us. And we have…
I’ll just close with this thought because I find it so sobering. We have 12 thousand hours of tapes of Saddam’s people raping and torturing in their prisons. 12 thousand hours. These were evil, vicious people and the people who are killing innocent people in Iraqi tonight— in Iraq tonight-are evil, vicious people. And I want us to reduce American casualties, I want us to be as smart as possible, but there are no circumstances where I want to see those kind of people win. Not on our watch.
Thank you very, very much.
April 11th, 2006 at 3:31 pmYou’re beggin the question #32. Gingrich has very publically been criticizing the setting up the CPA in the transition from removing Saddam to the formation of the Iraqi government. That is nothing new. Your math equation would make sense if the CPA was still running the show in April 2006. I assure you I have no problems with math, but you my friend have a problem using false logic.
Besides, Newt has not called for a retreat as TP and Huffington have claimed he has. In fact, he has said the opposite. There’s the big lie.
who’s wwallace?
April 11th, 2006 at 3:35 pmwho’s wwallace?
Comment by Jumping Jack Flash — April 11, 2006 @ 3:35 pm
Denial. So it must really burn to have to keep it a secret, as we know how much you love the attention.
April 11th, 2006 at 3:39 pmYour math equation would make sense if the CPA was still running the show in April 2006.
Comment by Jumping Jack Flash — April 11, 2006 @ 3:35 pm
I am not begging the question. The equation makes sense because the US is still occupying Iraq, regardless of who the (nominal) government is.
Again, Gingrich said: “It was an enormous mistake for us to try to occupy [Iraq] after June of 2003.â€
Math and reading comprehension are not your forte, wwallace.
Besides, Newt has not called for a retreat as TP and Huffington have claimed he has. In fact, he has said the opposite. There’s the big lie.
As I said, neither ThinkProgress nor the Huffington Post are the sources. And here, I am going to correct myself: ArgusLeader is the actual source of the story not the Editor And Publisher.
Who’s wwallace?
Another troll, who, like you, is seemingly unable to process new information amd keeps spouting the same nonsense over and over, even after having been corrected.
April 11th, 2006 at 3:49 pmJumping Jack Flash:
I can see why you are a Republican wingnut: you apparently, as my grandmother used to say, do not have the sense you were born with. Let’s go through your stupidity one step at a time:
1. Since you are apparently link-challenged (or maybe just lazy, as well as stupid), here is the link to the original article in the Argus-Leader: http://www.argusleader.com/ apps/ pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/ 20060411/ NEWS/ 604110311/ 1001
2. Nobody ever implied or indicated that the “pull out of Iraq and leave a small force” text from the above article (hope you can find it now) was a quote from Newt (what you labeled as “What Huffington says Gingrich says, but never said”). See, in the English language, we use things called QUOTATION MARKS to indicate direct quotes.
2. No doubt you will want to split semantic hairs about the differences, but Newt’s OWN WEB SITE says:
The United States needs to train the Iraqis as rapidly as possible and “pull back” from the cities to bases and air fields and serve as reinforcers as opposed to occupiers (this position is outlined in today’s WSJ as the official policy). — http://www.newt.org/backpage.asp?art=2921
4. Your idiocy about “What TP says Gingrich said, but never said” was addressed in comment #32 (and I second the motion about remedial math — and while you are in some learning institution somewhere /snark/, ask them to instruct you also in critical thinking and logic, as it appears you were absent those days in your previous education).
5. And, finally, if HuffPost et al. were distorting Newt’s message, why is it repeated verbatim at RedState? http://steven-foley.redstate.com/story/2006/4/11/112442/082
What a maroon.
April 11th, 2006 at 4:03 pm#21 - You are my soulmate, agua fiero!
April 11th, 2006 at 6:25 pmThey care more about using technology to corner American citizens and immigrants and less about capturing the leader of the murderous Al Qaeda.
April 11th, 2006 at 8:42 pmThings are so fuc*ed up right now, Newt looks liberal.
April 12th, 2006 at 1:42 amPuke Ginbitch is dogshit.
DOWN WITH BUSH !
April 12th, 2006 at 9:56 amWhy do people even listen to someone named after reptiles?
April 12th, 2006 at 10:32 amSure, they’re all a bunch of cold blooded, slimey, crawl around
in the dark, forked tongue hissing vermin, but…oh wait, I just
answered my own question!
#38
1) I already addressed the ArgusLeader.com link in post #26 and #28. I also provided the link to Newt’s taped comments that show that TP and Huffington misrepresented and lied about Newt’s position. And now finally TP provides the link 24 hours later. It turns out you’re stupid and lazy.
2) Now you agree with me. Newt never said, declared or told the students what TP and Huffington claims he said, declared, or told the students. Therefore, TP and Huffington lied. And ArgusLeader completely misreported Newt’s position about the CPA transition. Eliminating quotations and context is TP’s big lie. If you want to get the actual quote go to the mp3 link. Oh, that’s right…you’re stupid and lazy.
3) Oh, you skipped 3). Dumbass.
4) ad hominem attack. Nice. Still doesn’t change Newt’s comments that you can hear for yourself.
5) Redstate got it wrong, too. So what? It still doesn’t change Newt’s consistent postition on the CPA transition that TP and Huffington lied about. TP f’ed up now they’re trying to say that Newt made ArgusLeader change the headline. If you listen to Newt’s comments it’s quite obvious that ArgusLeader misrepresented Newt’s position and made the correction. Something that TP should learn to do instead of blaming some right-wing conspiracy.
April 12th, 2006 at 1:57 pm[…] It wasn’t pretty. Matt Stoller at MyDD labeled him “another cowardly rat jumping off the Iraq ship,” an “impotent rotten apple,” and urged readers to find and post their “favorite warmongering quote from Gingrich on Iraq prior to his jumping off the ship.” Think Progress gathered a “gotcha!” collection of Gingrich’s greatest pro-war quotes. And Jane Hamsher opened up with both barrels: … […]
April 13th, 2006 at 8:00 pmGolly, 43. Newts are not reptiles, they are, more aptly, amphibians. Amphi- means they are squishy, slimy, undergo metamorphosis, and flourish in swamps.
April 13th, 2006 at 8:49 pmIMPEACH BUSH, MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREE
April 14th, 2006 at 1:40 pmhey folks, I can’t find this quote in the transcript. Did it come from another part of his speech? Can anybody find the full transcript? I want to beleive he said it, but I need to see the source. Redstate is making it seem like he never said this, if he did, we need to prove it.
April 19th, 2006 at 3:00 amcontinuing cpa education
Didn’t realise there was this type of information out there
March 21st, 2008 at 4:10 amAccounting Financial Financial Success
I can not agree with you in 100% regarding some thoughts, but you got good point of view
April 14th, 2008 at 4:07 am