Joe Scarborough: 'We Can't Win the War'

By Rogers Cadenhead

Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 12:54 PM

In a further sign of eroding support for the Iraq war among Republicans, talk show host and former Florida Congressman Joe Scarborough announced on his MSNBC program Tuesday night that the United States "can't win this war."

Scarborough, who served Congress from 1995 to 2001 from a district in the Florida panhandle, told his audience that he was a supporter of the war until the Golden Mosque bombing in Samarra in February 2006. Damage to one of the Shi'ites most revered shrines sent thousands to the streets in protest and prompted a cycle of sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shi'ites that continues to this day.

Using the term "civil war," Scarborough said that the U.S. can't achieve victory in Iraq without doubling the number of troops in the country. "There is little left that we can do to win this war in Iraq, unless you and I as taxpayers tell people in Washington, D.C., we want to raise enough money to send 300,000 to 400,000 troops over there to subdue Iraq for the next 10 years."

Since starting his MSNBC show in 2003, Scarborough has been more critical of President Bush and other Republican leaders than you might expect from somebody with a 93 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union for his Congressional votes.

Last August, Scarborough's show had an infamous segment in which he asked the question, "Is Bush an idiot?"

His answer: Yes. "George Bush is in a league by himself," he said, describing the president as intellectually incurious. "I don't think he has the intellectual depth, as these other people, but do we need that as a president?"

A transcript of his remarks Tuesday, which ended an interview segment with guests Pat Buchanan, Michael Crowley and Arianna Huffington:

Joe Scarborough: The overwhelming majority of Americans do want a clear withdrawal timetable. Michael Crowley, Pat Buchanan, Arianna Huffington, thanks for being with us tonight.

I want to make a point, friends. I supported this war from the very beginning. I tell you that all that the time. I continued supporting it up until the Golden Mosque was blown up in Samarra, and suddenly, it did turn into a civil war. There is little left that we can do to win this war in Iraq, unless you and I as taxpayers tell people in Washington, D.C., we want to raise enough money to send 300,000 to 400,000 troops over there to subdue Iraq for the next 10 years.

If we decide we want to do that, we can win this war. If we don't do that -- and there's no way we're going to do that -- we can't win the war.

And you're hearing that from a guy who's been a hawk from his earliest days. But I'm also a realist. You know, it's like Gladstone said. When the facts change, so does my mind. You know, what do you do?

Well, bottom line is, if you keep your feet in cement and you don't change with the realities on the ground, then you're responsible for the killing of a lot more U.S. troops.