1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
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Almost nine years after the 9/11 attacks, the United States has yet to confront the threat posed by the extremist and irreconcilable wing of Islam. Former Speaker of the House and AEI senior fellow Newt Gingrich warned that now is the time to awaken from self-deception about the nature of
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our enemies and rebuild a bipartisan commitment, in Afghanistan and elsewhere, to defend America. Drawing on the lessons of Camus and Orwell, Gingrich described the dangers of a wartime government that uses language and misleading labels to obscure reality. He explained why we need a debate about this larger war against the irreconcilable wing of Islam—which mortally threatens America’s way of life, freedom, and rule of law—and how it relates to the nuclear threat from Iran and the various other risks posed to America’s very existence. Most importantly, Gingrich argued that America will remain at risk until it confronts this willful blindness about the nature of its enemies and the nature of the war in which it is engaged.
| 1:45 p.m. | Registration | |
| 2:00 | Introduction: | Arthur C. Brooks, AEI |
| Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions | ||
| Speaker: | Newt Gingrich, AEI | |
| 3:00 | Adjournment |
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-862-7197
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-862-5806
WASHINGTON, JULY 29, 2010--Former Speaker of the House and AEI senior fellow Newt Gingrich insisted that America must have an honest debate about a grand strategy for victory against the irreconcilable wing of Islam. Such a victory, Gingrich said, must be won in Afghanistan, where President Barack Obama's withdrawal deadline risks a disastrous defeat with worldwide consequences. This effort will take place on many fronts and will include stopping a nuclear Iran and defeating radical Islam in the United States and Europe. America's elites have been blind to the mortal threat posed by both stealth and violent jihadists, leaving America at greater risk than at any time since 9/11. Harkening back to the prescient warnings of Camus and Orwell, Gingrich illustrated the dangers of a government that uses language to obscure problems rather than to define them. Recalling America's legacy of victory in World War II and the Cold War, he juxtaposed the confused and vague language of the Obama administration with the bold moral and intellectual clarity of America's greatest wartime statesmen, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy.
- "We cannot afford defeat in Afghanistan. The moral effects around the planet, the increase in morale of the radical jihadists, and the damage to Western civilization would be incalculable. Great powers should be careful about starting, but once they start, they should be relentless and unblinkable about winning, and it is very dangerous for us to talk about how we're going to somehow have a magic date at which we leave no matter the consequences, because that means we're not thinking about the consequences."
- "Sharia in its natural form has principles and punishments totally abhorrent to the Western world, and the underlying and basic belief which is that law comes directly from God, and is therefore imposed upon humans, and no human can change the law without it being an act of apostasy. It is a fundamental violation of a tradition in the Western system, which goes back to Rome, Athens, and Jerusalem, which has evolved and given us freedom across the planet on a scale which we can hardly imagine, and which is now directly threatened by those who would impose."
- "I simply want to say, as an American, these are difficult times. It requires us to tell the truth. It requires us to think carefully and long about a grand, national strategy. It requires us to recommit ourselves to freedom. It requires us to say to radical Islam, as we said to the British government, as we said at a time of disunion, as we said to Nazi Germany, as we said to the Soviet Union, freedom will prevail."
--Newt Gingrich
--DUSTIN WALKER AND ERICA RICHEY
Speaker biographies
Arthur C. Brooks is the president of AEI. Until January 1, 2009, he was the Louis A. Bantle Professor of Business and Government Policy at Syracuse University. He is the author of eight books and many articles on topics ranging from the economics of the arts to applied mathematics. His most recent books include The Battle: How the Fight Between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America's Future (Basic Books, May 2010), Gross National Happiness (Basic Books, 2008), Social Entrepreneurship (Prentice-Hall, 2008), and Who Really Cares (Basic Books, 2006).
Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and senior fellow at AEI, is a member of the Terrorism Task Force for the Council on Foreign Relations, an advisory board member of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, an advisory board member of Common Good, a founding member of Project Vote Smart, and a member of the Committee on the Present Danger. He is also a news and political analyst for the Fox News Channel and writes a weekly newsletter for Human Events. He is the author of twenty-one books, including New York Times bestsellers Real Change: From the World That Fails to the World That Works (Regnery, 2008) and To Save America: Stopping Obama's Secular-Socialist Machine (Regnery, 2010). Along with his wife Callista, Mr. Gingrich hosts and produces historical and public policy documentaries. Mr. Gingrich is also chairman of the Gingrich Group, founder of the Center for Health Transformation, and general chairman of American Solutions for Winning the Future.
Callista Gingrich is the president of Gingrich Productions, a performance and production company focusing on audio, video, and photographic production. Mrs. Gingrich and her husband, AEI senior fellow Newt Gingrich, host and produce historical and public policy documentaries, including Nine Days that Changed the World, Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny, We Have the Power, and Rediscovering God in America, as well as an upcoming documentary on American national security. She is the voice for several audio books, including To Save America; To Try Men's Souls; 5 Principles for a Successful Life; Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less; The Art of Transformation; Real Change; Contract with the Earth; and Rediscovering God in America. Mrs. Gingrich is also the voice for American Solutions for Winning the Future, a bipartisan organization for political and governmental change, as well as president of the Gingrich Foundation, a charitable nonprofit corporation.
