No way out soon in Iraq, Rove tells GOP faithful
By Doug ThompsonFAYETTEVILLE -- Pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq now could leave behind a terrorist state with oil revenue to finance attacks around the world, White House political strategist Karl Rove said in Fayetteville on Tuesday.
Rove was the keynote speaker for a fund-raiser that raised about $50,000 for the Republican Party of Arkansas.
"This is war. I wish we could have set a timetable where, if this thing in Europe wasn't won by June 8, 1944, we're out," Rove said, referring to the allied invasion of France in World War II.
About 20 protesters gathered outside the reception and luncheon, including Dick Bennett, president of the OMNI Peace Center in Fayetteville.
"That's an astonishing thing for him to say," Bennett said.
When the U.S. invaded Iraq to end a terrorist threat that didn't exist, the Bush administration is arguing that the U.S. can't leave without creating the very terrorist threat that the invasion was supposed to destroy, he said.
"They're trying to cover up the fact that the war has failed," Bennett said.
Inside, GOP governor's candidate Asa Hutchinson and 3rd District Rep. John Boozman, R-Rogers, were among those who introduced Rove, along with the state GOP chairman, state Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway.
"I'm delighted to call him my friend," Hutchinson said of Rove, aligning himself with the Bush administration as Republican candidates elsewhere have attempted to distance themselves from a president with poor approval ratings.
Boozman also introduced Rove as "a true friend of mine and a true friend to the Republican Party of Arkansas."
Rove told the crowd that Hutchinson, a former undersecretary for the federal Department of Homeland Security, laid the groundwork for programs that he said are now paying off in controlling the U.S. border. Getting a hearing for someone charged with attempting illegal entry into the United States now averages 19 days instead of 93, the average for years before that, Rove said.
Hutchinson also set the stage for doubling the size of the federal Border Patrol, Rove said.
The fall elections will turn on the economy and the global war on terror, Rove said.
"Judge us by the results, with 6.6 million new jobs created in the past five years," Rove said. "That's as many jobs created as the rest of the G-7 (the Group of Seven most industrialized nations) combined. Our growth in the past three years equals the size of the entire Chinese economy."
He attributed economic growth to the Bush tax cuts.
He defended the Bush administration's handling of intelligence gathering and detainees in the war on terror. Administration critics have called its domestic surveillance unconstitutional spying, its interrogation techniques torture and the practice of holding foreign nationals indefinitely a violation of basic human rights.
"In World War II, when we captured Japanese or German soldiers on the battlefield, we didn't ring up the ACLU and get them a lawyer," Rove said, adding that Democrats "talk about being smart and strong and vote for foolish and weak."
Jason Willett, chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas, issued a statement after Rove's appearance. It said in part: "We'll let the Republicans continue to rely on members of the failed Bush administration in their last-minute attempt to bolster support."
Hutchinson faces Democrat Mike Beebe and Boozman faces Democrat Woody Anderson in the Nov. 7 general election.