DEFEATIST DEMS FACE WHITE FLAG
http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/58417.htm
By DEBORAH ORIN Bureau Chief
12/9/2005
December 9, 2005 -- WASHINGTON — Republicans today plan to release a Web video showing a white flag of surrender waving over Democrats like Howard Dean and Sen. John Kerry to highlight their negative comments about U.S. soldiers in Iraq this week.
The video comes as Democrats are rushing to repudiate Dean's statement Monday that Iraq is a lost cause like Vietnam.
"The idea that we're going to win this war is an idea that, unfortunately, is just plain wrong," he told a Texas radio station.
Republicans said the video aims to use the Democrats' own words to press the idea that they favor a "retreat and defeat strategy," show that such remarks hurt troop morale, and drive a wedge through the Democratic Party's divisions over Iraq.
The video comes after The Post ran a picture illustration on Wednesday of Dean waving a white flag.
Calls to Kerry and Dean were not immediately returned.
Kerry raised eyebrows on Sunday when he suggested U.S. soldiers are terrorizing Iraqis and told CBS: "There is no reason that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children."
Dean yesterday tried to eat his defeatist words and sounded as if he was doing a full flip-flop when he told CNN: "We can and we have to win the war on terror."
His spokeswoman, Karen Finney, didn't respond to questions about whether Dean's latest "we have to win" remarks also mean he has done an about-face on Iraq and thinks America can and must win there.
Dean's earlier words prompted some Democrats, including New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, to disagree with the Democratic Party's national leader.
Dean yesterday claimed his remarks on the Texas station were reported "a little out of context" and "cherry-picked."
But the audio from San Antonio's WOAI leaves no doubt about the context — Dean was answering a question on whether America is on the right track to training Iraqis so U.S. troops can come home.
Dean's full quote was: "The idea that we're going to win this war is an idea that, unfortunately, is just plain wrong, and I've seen this before in my life and it cost us 25,000 brave American soldiers in Vietnam and I don't want to go down that road again."
Democratic strategists groaned that Dean's remarks make his whole party sound defeatist and pointedly noted that when he was elected DNC chairman, he promised that he would stay away from hot-button policy issues like Iraq.
deborah.orin@nypost.com
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