Has this guy ever been tested for syphilis? I mean, his policy prescriptions have always been a bit batty, but we are in the realm of a dementia that seems almost pathological now.
In an interview with Al Jazeera's Fault Lines program, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich outlined his U.S. policy towards Iran. Gingrich said the U.S. should "sabotage" Iran's oil and gas infrastructure as part of an effort to topple the Iranian government.Al Jazeera's Avi Lewis told Gingrich, "In the past, you've called for the bombing of Iran's oil refineries. Gingrich clarified, "I called for sabotage, not bombing. Fundamental difference."
Gingrich explained that the U.S. should use "covert operations" against Iran's refineries because they "have only one refinery that produces gasoline in the entire country." (According to the Energy Information Administration, Iran has nine refineries operated by the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company.)
When Lewis pressed Gingrich on the likely disastrous consequences . . . the former Speaker responded by claiming his plan was highly "strategic":
Gingrich: The only purpose of sabotaging them would be to create a gasoline-led crisis to try to replace the regime. I'm against using tactics that don't have any strategic meaning.
I think we have a vested interest, the world has a vested interest, in a responsible Iranian government.
Lewis: Which you can precipitate by provoking a gas crisis with black-ops sabotage? [Laughs] That's the scenario you have suggested here.
Gingrich: Look, I think that's one piece out of many.
If you really stop to think about it, this is Newt's philosophy of governance in a nutshell: To achieve a desired political objective, commit acts of sabotage. It was his practical stock in trade when he was the Speaker of the House, and as is the case with many of his fellow neoconservatives, his repeated failures and screw-ups have only left him even more convinced in the righteousness of his doctrines. How people like him manage to go through life without lapsing into full-blown schizophrenia, I'll never know. Then again, maybe they are already.
---Vitelius
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