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  Like Nixon or Like Ike?
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ContributorServo 
Last EditedServo  Jan 17, 2007 01:01pm
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CategoryOpinion
MediaNewspaper - Washington Post
News DateWednesday, January 17, 2007 07:00:00 PM UTC0:0
DescriptionFor the Republicans, there are two ways out of Iraq. They can either go out like Eisenhower or like Nixon.

As the first Republican to occupy the White House since the coming of the New Deal, Dwight Eisenhower could have chosen to divide the public and try to roll back Franklin Roosevelt's handiwork. In fact, he didn't give that option a moment's consideration. Social Security and unions, he concluded, were here to stay; any attempt to undo them, he wrote, would consign the Republicans to permanent minority status. Ike also ended the Korean War without attacking Democrats in the process.

His vice president, Richard Nixon, became president largely because of the public's massive discontent with the Vietnam War. We now know that Nixon and Henry Kissinger had no illusions that the war could be won, and Nixon probably could have withdrawn U.S. troops in a way that didn't polarize the public. Such a stance, however, ran counter to Nixon's deepest instincts. For Nixon, politics was about dividing the electorate and demonizing enemies. Even as he drew down U.S. forces, he did all he could to inflame the war's already flammable opponents in the hope that however much the people might dislike the war, they would dislike its critics more.

Today's Republicans now must choose between Eisenhower's way and Nixon's way. If they're like Ike, they will recognize that the war is lost and that public support for it isn't likely to be rekindled.
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