Quote of the Day: civil liberties after the bomb

Speaking before the National Press Club in August 2007, Newt Gingrich gave a clarion call to those who might mistakenly think the United States is well on the road to defeating terrorism. The key line comes at the very end, as he discusses the possibility that we will see an American city destroyed in a nuclear fireball:

I am genuinely afraid that this political system will not react until we lose a city, and nobody in this country’s thought about the threat to our civil liberties the morning after we decide it’s that dangerous and how rapidly we will impose ruthlessness on ourselves in that kind of a world. I think those of you who care about civil liberties had better be thinking through how we win this war before the casualties get so great that the American people voluntarily give up a lot of those liberties.

And "winning this war," Gingrich said, does not include pulling out of the Middle East.

(The entire speech and transcript are here.)