28 October 2006Todd Richmond
Presidential advisor Karl Rove blasted Democrats on Friday for even suggesting the U.S. withdraw from Iraq, saying the U.S. can't leave one of the world's largest oil reserves in terrorist hands.
However, Rove also said the military must be flexible in its tactics. He did not elaborate.
"More sacrifice is going to be required," Rove, President Bush's chief political strategist, told a ballroom full of Republicans at a fundraiser for Wisconsin candidates. "We will either create a world in which our children and our grandchildren have a hope of an optimistic future or we will leave to them a world with a hateful empire centered in the Middle East."
His remarks came on the day Iraq's prime minister and the U.S. ambassador issued a joint statement reaffirming the two countries "good and strong" relationship.
Joe Wineke, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, said the public realizes Bush and Rove took America to war under false pretenses.
"Frankly, I think Karl Rove has had too much of his own Kool-Aid. He's starting to believe his own message," Wineke said. "It's their war. It's their mess."
Rove predicted Republicans would dominate the November elections, which he said will turn on the GOP's strength, national security.
About 175 people, including Wisconsin Congressmen Jim Sensenbrenner and Paul Ryan, attended the fundraiser, which generated about $40,000, state GOP executive director Rick Wiley said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061028/ap_on_el_st_lo/rove_iraq_1
