Four trade jabs over policy in Iraq in 3rd annual event
Originally published in the Virginian-Pilot
Four trade jabs over policy in Iraq in 3rd annual event
By GILLIAN GAYNAIR, The Virginian-Pilot
The third annual Clash of the Titans debate Friday at Regent University brought together four political heavyweights to spar over whether the U.S. strategy in Iraq is working.
Appearing at the Communication and Performing Arts Center, the political musclemen garnered cheers and boos from an audience of about 700.
On the right was Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House and author of Contract with America, a series of reforms that led to the first Republican House majority in 40 years in 1995, and former Lt. Col. Oliver North, counter terrorism coordinator during the Reagan administration and a decorated Marine.
On the left was Paul Begala, co-host of CNN's "Inside Politics " and senior strategist for Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, and retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark, commander of NATO forces in the Kosovo conflict and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
Journalist Forrest Sawyer of NBC News and MSNBC moderated the debate.
First in the ring was Gingrich, who said that although some intelligence was wrong, ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was a threat to the United States and that the war in Iraq was necessary to ensure Americans' safety.
The U nited States made mistakes, Gingrich said, "but in fact, we have no choice but to learn from these mistakes and move on."
Clark said he did not think the war on terrorism involved invading Iraq and criticized the Bush administration for sending inadequate military forces into Iraq without a follow-through plan.
"It's high time this administration came forward with a regional plan that will work," Clark said. "'Staying the course' is not a plan. It's a slogan."
The general suggested that fighting terrorism in the Middle East requires that conditions be created to defeat, on Muslim territory, ideologies among some Muslims.
"You use force as your last resort," Clark said. "Your first weapon is the weapon of ideology. We have to sharpen up that weapon and get it deployed because we're behind."
North, too, addressed terrorism on a broad level but said "staying the course" â€" a refrain used often by Bush â€" involves attacking the "explosive growth" of jihads â€" Muslim holy wars â€" throughout the Middle East and elsewhere. The challenge before the United States is to create conditions in which young people are not taught to hate and kill but rather to have hope and believe in opportunities, North said.
The four debaters came together at the end of a historic week in Iraq, during which Saddam and seven Iraqi officials went on trial, accused of executing 143 Shiites from the town of Dujail, and results from an Oct. 15 constitutional referendum appeared to have been approved by voters.
Meanwhile, U.S. casualties since the beginning of the Iraq war reached 1,992 this week in some counts, and national polls showed declining public support for the war in Iraq and President Bush.
At the Regent debate, Begala said the president has failed Americans and lied to them with "rosy scenarios" of the war on terrorism.
"The lack of candor and credibility in the long term will be strategically detrimental to us moving forward in this," said Begala, adding that most Americans aren't in agreement with Bush's strategy in Iraq.
At one point, Begala asked his fellow panelists what the president should do to garner citizens' support.
North said he would like to see Bush visit troops several times in the battlefield to offer encouragement.
Clark suggested that the president deal with Iraq in "the context of its neighbors and actions in the region as a whole."
Looking to the future, North said he thought the turnout to elect a new Iraqi parliament in December will be far more than most expect and that afterward , American forces will slowly move out of Iraq. The country will build democracy, he said, but the long-term issue will be how to address jihads throughout the region.
Gingrich proposed that the challenge before Americans "is to accept that some things may not be fixable." He said he foresaw the United States in a 50- to 70-year war "with an irreconcilable wing of Islam."
Although he said in his opening remarks that the United States was safer with Saddam out of power, Gingrich in closing said the United States still is not inside the minds of terrorists. He referred to North Korea and said that after 55 years, "we still don't understand their government."
"We will learn what we have to learn and do what we have to do, and we will win this war with whatever it takes," Gingrich said. "That's the only future I know of."
