Excerpts From Newt Gingrich's Book

By The Associated Press

Excerpts from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's book, "Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America."



IRAQ:

_"We have consistently underestimated how hard rebuilding Iraq (news - web sites) will be and how long the job will take. I have seen no evidence that we know how to defeat the insurgents who fight in Iraq. We still lack the necessary intelligence, communications efforts, and Iraqi military and police units to beat the insurgents."

_"The decision ... to disband the Iraq military, putting hundreds of thousands of armed young men out of work, was a disaster that our military warned against."

_"While the Iraq war was just and the military campaign brilliant, the process of creating a democratic Iraq has been difficult. The decision to have an American administration in Baghdad was a mistake."

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TERRORISM:

_"We are in a war of survival, and we could lose that war."

_"A reasonable estimate would be that this war will last until 2070 ... . An optimist could make a case for winning by 2025 or 2030. Alternatively this conflict could be a fact of life for several centuries."

_"Despite spending billions of dollars on our national security, we are still unprepared."

_"We have risen to the challenge before and we can do so again."

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RELIGION:

_"We must establish that our rights come from our Creator and that an America that has driven God from out of the public arena is an America on the way to decay and defeat."

_"There is no attack on American culture more deadly and more historically dishonest than the secular left's unending war against God in America's public life."