The United States cannot win the global war on terror if U.S. leaders don't understand it -- and Rep. Nancy Pelosi does not understand it, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said on Tuesday.Hastert -- who holds the job that Pelosi is eager to assume -- was reacting to Pelosi's remarks on the CBS program "60 Minutes." He said her comments should serve as a "bellwether" for the American people.
"Democrat Leader Pelosi would trust the terrorists to give up their objective and play nice in exchange for the United States leaving Iraq. This outlook is foolish, naive and dangerous," Hastert said.
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.
Hastert said the minority leader is wrong. The global war on terror is just that -- global, he said. "It is not fought in just one country. It is not even fought in one hemisphere."
Hastert said that's why Pelosi's comments are "irresponsible."
"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."
Hastest said if Democrats controlled Congress, they would "cut and run from the Global War on Terror, continue to coddle terrorists, create a United States Department of Peace -- and call it a day."
Later on Tuesday, Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Committee on International Relations, echoed Hastert's criticism of Pelosi. Terrorists aren't confined to Afghanistan, Hyde said.
"A failure to recognize this could be disastrous to American security."
Hyde said until the fledgling government of Iraq is stable, terrorists will be able to maximize disorder - and their "plots will move forward unimpeded."
"It is only the U.S. presence in Iraq that prevents chaos from taking complete control of that country. A free and stable Iraq will be a major U.S. victory in the war on terror," Hyde said.