Hastert Chides Pelosi For Her 'Irresponsible' Iraq Withdrawal Scenario

House Speaker Dennis Hastert calls Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi's views, expressed Sunday in a CBS "Sixty Minutes" segment, "...foolish, naive and dangerous." Speaker Hastert was being too kind. Pelosi's inability to understand the nature of the Global War on Terror was revealed quite clearly in this statement (From CNSNews):

Pelosi told CBS's Leslie Stahl that yes, there are terrorists in Iraq. "But that doesn't mean we stay there. They'll stay there as long as we're there. They're there because we're there," she said.

Pelosi hasn't connected the dots. They're there, and being killed there by the thousands. If we leave, they'll follow us home.

Hastert had more to say about the Democratic leader's gaffe:

"Is the Democrat Minority Leader really turning a blind eye towards the countless number of terrorists that we are fighting in the streets and battlefields of Iraq and also in numerous countries around the world? Does she forget the nearly 3,000 victims of September 11th? The 201 victims of the Madrid train bombings? And the 52 victims of the London bomb attacks? These were all innocent victims of the Global War on Terror. And what about the countless others who have been saved because of our efforts?

Hastert said Pelosi could not be further from reality when she say terrorists are in Iraq only because U.S. troops are there: "If the United States had not brought the fight to foreign soil, terrorists wouldn't disappear -- they would deploy to the United States."

He said that's why President Bush and the Republican-led Congress "have chosen to go on the offensive and take the fight to the terrorists before we have to fight them in American neighborhoods."