This morning on Meet the Press, Newt Gingrich argued we have entered World War III and that the United States ought to engage the effort by “helping the Lebanese government have the strength to eliminate Hezbollah as a military force.” Watch it:
As Matt Stoller points out, Gingrich was also quoted today suggesting that President Bush should be framing the current violence as World War III for the benefit of the fall elections.
Full transcript:
GINGRICH: We’re in the early stages of what I would describe as the third World War and, frankly, our bureaucracy’s not responding fast enough and we don’t have the right attitude. And this is the 58th year of the war to destroy Israel and, frankly, the Israelis have every right to insist that every single missile leave south Lebanon, and the United States ought to be helping the Lebanese government have the strength to eliminate Hezbollah as a military force — not as a political force in the parliament — but as a military force in south Lebanon.
RUSSERT: This is World War III?
GINGRICH: I believe if you take all the countries I just listed that you’ve been covering, put them on a map, look at all the different connectivity, you have to say to yourself: this is, in fact, World War III.