Newt Gingrich Dreams of Victory
Former Republican congressman and house speaker, and possible presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich has long fancied himself a bit of a futurist in the Alvin Toffler mode. He has long cozied up to the tech industry and may be the only congressman to attend science fiction conventions. It is safe to say that he is, in the Delphi oracle futurist sense of the word, a dreamer. And if any further evidence is needed, consider this excerpt from his appearance on Meet The Press this past weekend:
RUSSERT: But, specifically, how would you want the war in Iraq militarily?
GINGRICH: First of all, you would empower General Petraeus, you’d pass the supplemental immediately, you’d give him the money; second, you would encourage the Iraqis to triple the size of their regular army; third, you would encourage the development of a military tribunal system to lock people up, the way Abraham Lincoln would have done it; fourth, you would establish a nationwide ID card with biometrics so you can actually track everybody in the country; fifth, you would make sure that the State Department actually staffed the embassy with people in favor of winning the war, and you actually had fully equipped intelligence and economic development teams; sixth, you would say to the Iranians, “If you don’t cut off everything you’re doing we’ll begin to bring enormous pressure to bear with you, if necessary, blockading the flow of gasoline into Iran, which has to import 40 percent of its gasoline because it only has one refinery in the entire country.
As Sen. Chris Dodd, the other guest on the show noted:
DODD: What you’re suggesting, first, is terribly naive to assume that all of these things are going to happen with a government that even, to this day, can’t even leave the green zone to get out and function.
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