I've watched more FOX than most anyone on the planet that hasn't built either a Tom Delay or George Bush shrine in their living room so when Newt says what he did today my "bat senses" tingle. Newt comes on O'Reilly and H&C like clock-work and gets at least two segments of air time-mostly devoted to attacking war critics and Democrats.
Digby's email to Jane:
Gingrich is not to be trusted.
He was a major behind-the-scenes player in the run-up to the Iraq war, and even worse, was a major proponent of Rumsfeld’s delusional RMA experiment that left Iraq undermanned in the early days when the conventional theories requiring large numbers of troops were pooh-poohed as outmoded "second wave" thinking. Considered among the starry eyed neocons to be something of a military visionary, Newt was giving speeches at AEI about our glorious new military that could invade a country with a cell phone from the back of a camel. Completely nuts. If his kooky ideas had not been adopted, that war might never have happened — there were never enough troops to do it right unilaterally.
He’s trying to cover his ass and he might get away with it because he kept a very low profile. But he’s almost as responsible for this %*$# as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz and should never be allowed to meddle in national security — hell, politics — ever again. '
UPDATE:
The Argus Leader article, Gingrich at USD: Pull out of Iraq (video) has caused confusion as to Newt's position on the Iraq War and how to win against the murders and terrorists trying to tear apart the country.
Update: (The title has now been changed to "Gingrich at USD: Scale back to small force in Iraq (video).")
In an effort clarify, Newt.org has posted the clip from the speech when he talks about Iraq. It can be found here on our media page as an audio stream. It can be downloaded as an mp3 here.
