Louie Gohmert CPAC: Congressman Relitigates Vietnam, Advocates For Balochistan Independence

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) on Thursday struck a markedly hawkish tone at a CPAC panel, asserting that the Vietnam War had been "winnable."

"People in Washington decided that we could not win it," he said, echoing a well-established conservative talking point.

"Nixon says we'll go out of it, we'll go to peace talks, and then he carpet-bombed North Vietnam. They rush back to the table, and we surrender in effect," he said.

He went on to say if only the United States had carpet bombed North Vietnam for one more week -- a move that caused heavy civilian casualties -- then the nation would have surrendered unconditionally.

That statement drew cheers from the audience.

Later on, Gohmert called on the United States to entice separatist ambitions in the Balochistan region of Pakistan. "What if in Washington, we started talking about an independent Balochistan? Pakistani arrogance would die overnight."

Gohmert, speaking to The Huffington Post in January 2012, advocated a similar policy of carving out a separate entity in a country that is both an ally and nuclear power to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Later on in the question and answer session, he spoke out against occupying countries, but said that if the U.S. finds itself at war with another nation, it should just "take 'em out." Afterward, he said, the U.S. should leave that nation alone and not "get in [its] way" -- unless the U.S. doesn't like the new government that forms there, in which case it should "take them out too."

Below, a liveblog of the latest updates from CPAC: