Sending mixed messages about Iraq, that's what. Check out my latest article at the Prospect. Excerpt:
Gingrich, like so many ambitious Republicans (see: Giuliani, Rudy), feeds right into al-Qaeda's propaganda when he depicts the United States as locked in an existential struggle against radical Islam, a war he believes should become the organizing principle of our entire government. And like Rudy Giuliani, his fetishization of 9/11 is more than gauche. It's downright disturbing the way Gingrich seems to relish the possibility of another attack on U.S. soil, what he refers to as "losing a city." His policy ideas should be enacted now, he told an audience-member at AEI, but at the very least he said he seeks to lay the groundwork for change following our next 9/11, which, according to Gingrich, will probably consist of a nuclear or biological attack.
Just as creepy was Gingrich's discussion of "the possibility of a second Holocaust" perpetrated by Iran and Syria against Israel if the United States does not take decisive action against those regimes. He implied that one way to do so would be for the U.S. to destroy Iranian oil refineries, presumably through a bombing campaign. "It makes no sense to have a Holocaust Museum in Washington and yet have no honest assessment of the threat of a 21st century Holocaust," he said.
Why won't Newt just go away? These people have such a hard-on for war, it makes me sick.
Posted by: Noah | September 11, 2007 at 11:26 PM