Here was Newt Gingrich on Pakistan last night on “O’Reilly”:
GINGRICH: Well, I think first of all, we should make it clear to the Pakistanis that we’re not going to tolerate the northwest frontier being a sanctuary of our enemies.
O’REILLY: But we’ve already done that.
GINGRICH: We have.O’REILLY: We’ve already made it clear.GINGRICH: Well, no, no. I mean, I think I would start by saying that they should expect from here on out that there will be hot pursuit, that we will have predators over their area, that we will, in fact, be prepared to kill any Taliban that we find. And that if they want to block that, then they’ve got to do it themselves….I think you have — look, you either have to decide that you’re prepared to lose to Afghanistan, which would be an absolute disaster. Or you are prepared to do what it takes to defeat the Taliban. And I think it’s been a major mistake for the last seven years for us to tolerate a sanctuary in northwest Pakistan. I think that we have to put pressure on the Pakistanis. And we have to indicate that we’re prepared to put lots of pressure on them. That we’d prefer that they do the job, but if they’re unwilling to do the job, then we’re going to make sure it gets done. And that would include training Afghan units to go in covertly and to operate across all of the northwest frontier.
O’REILLY: Would you cut the money off? We’re sending those people in Pakistan?GINGRICH: I would tell the Pakistanis that we will not only cut the money off, we will take other measures and that we — if we’re going to — if the question for us is winning in Afghanistan or having the Pakistanis like us, we have no choice except to win in Afghanistan.O’REILLY: OK, the unintended consequences that the militants overthrow the fragile government they have now, and it becomes a militant state with nuclear capabilities. See, that’s the rock and the hard place.GINGRICH: Sure, that’s right.
O’REILLY: I mean, McCain and Obama, neither one really know what to do. I asked McCain and he — with all due respect to the senator, he didn’t know what to do. And I don’t think Obama knows what to do either because…
GINGRICH: But let me draw a distinction, Bill.O’REILLY: Go ahead.GINGRICH: The fact is the tribal region that is the northwest frontier does not have the same interest as the urban Pakistanis. And the fact is that the northwest frontier, it’s ethnically different. It’s Pashtun, just like southern Afghanistan. It’s not part of the Pakistani world. And I think you can go pretty aggressively and say to them we want to help you get this done. We’re prepared to equip you, support you. But it’s going to get done. And we are not going to tolerate any more raids across the border, period.