Newt Gingrich Calls The War In Afghanistan Counterproductive

Newt Gingrich went on “Face The Nation” today and discussed the war in Afghanistan. Bob Schieffer asked Gingrich, “Is it time for us to leave Afghanistan, Mr. Speaker?” He responded, “I think it is. I think that we have to reassess the entire region.” Gingrich added, “We need to understand that our being in the middle of countries like Afghanistan is probably counterproductive. We’re not prepared to be ruthless enough to force them to change, and yet we’re clearly an alien presence. That was the real meaning of the reaction to the Koran burning. The fact is those Korans had been in fact defaced by Muslims who were prisoners. They had been abused by Muslims, not by Americans, and yet the instantaneous anti-foreigner sentiment is so deep that I think we need to recognize that we’re walking on egg shells in places like Afghanistan, and after $20 billion in the last decade, it’s pretty hard to argue that the Pakistanis are seriously our allies when they hide Bin Laden for seven years.”