Posted on 05/30/2006 6:30:01 PM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
by Mark Finkelstein
May 30, 2006
There are surely Bill O'Reilly experts out there who have carefully charted the history of his pronouncements on the Iraq war. But as a casual observer, it seemed to me that in this evening's Talking Points, O'Reilly struck an altogether more negative tone on Iraq, with implications for future US foreign policy.
Here's what he had to say: "The chaos in Afghanistan and Iraq will never end, because there will always be people who hate Americans. And we are an occupying force in those countries. The very important question is how do we as citizens process what's going on in those theaters of war? In Afghanistan, the Taliban are just waiting until we leave and will always be waiting. Whether the Karzai government will ever be strong enough to defeat them is an open question.
"In Iraq the terrorists will also never stop bombing no matter what government is in place. The situation will parallel Israel. Terrorism will always be on display. That's the truth. Terrorism is here to stay. Muslim fanatics are not going anywhere so what should the USA do? The first thing is to be realistic. If we could go back to the fall of 2001 right after 9/11, you would still have to invade Afghanistan, no way could the USA allow Al Qaeda to remain there. But Iraq should be a lesson learned. We cannot ever again put American boots on the ground in a hostile Arab country. Iraq was an optional war. There will always be or there were other ways, I should say, of removing Saddam."
Appearing later in the program, former Dem presidential contender Wesley Clark was only too glad to welcome O'Reilly to the fold: "I am glad you have come around. Iraq was an unnecessary war. It's a failure by the way the President defined the mission."
Bill O'Reilly/NewsBusters ping to Today show list.
So no soldiers on the ground where there could be resistance?
Just brilliant.
I agree with him - nothing against the effort, but what else can we do to set up their country? It seems as if the Iraquis are determined to live in chaos.
Oh, really, O reilly? How does he feel about Spain, where we still have boots on the ground in Cuba? How about St. Louis? How about Washington, D.C.?
Surrender now, Bill, avoid the rush.
Who will support him, when the guy with the knife comes for him?
O'Reilly said 'Arab' country, but I'll assume he generally is referring to Muslim countries. What if we became convinced that Iran had nuclear weapons, was planning to use them, and that air strikes would be insufficient to eliminate the threat. Is he absolutely ruling out the use of ground troops in such a situation?
Yes, no boots on the ground. Just Nukes.
Glass parking lot.
When it cools off go in for the oil.
I no longer watch FOX at Britt Hume's news show. O'reilly, Hannity and Colmes, and Greta are all TABLOID TV, not news.
O'Reilly is a Walter Cronkite wannabe.
Bill O'Reilly is all about Bill O'Reilly - whatever makes "news" is what he says.
I am so glad that BOR is not a General in the military
He'd get us all killed
For a number of years, I've been convinced that Iraq was our last "Hearts & Minds" war in that corner of the world. When we deal with Iran and Syria, we can stick with "Shock & Awe." It's not like anyone's going to love us anyways.
What's the exit strategy from Kosovo? Or Germany?
You would be right....Bill O'Reilly has flip-flopped on the Iraq War more than John F'n Kerry even thought about doing...
I saw his show through Clark...and a little of Morris.
For O'Reilly to have on CLARK as his "expert" on either the Iraq War OR the Haditha "scandal"...is a scandal of it's own.
O'Reilly knew exactly what Weasley Clark was going to say...and the ONLY good thing I can say about O'Reilly tonight..is that he originally agreed to not exploit this until the investigation WAS over...at least until today.
Clark was as bad as Murtha...just less hysterical sounding.
I am SO disgusted with the MSM (including Fox) right now..I better quit before I get banned.
And Waxley says to Bill, "I"m glad you've finally changed sides."
We have killed thousands of terrorist in Iraq. They have come and we have killed. That is one of the reasons we are there to weed them out. O'Reily is a horses ass and he goes with the flavor of the month.
O'Reilly has jumped on the Murtha bandwagon. He's an definitely un-watchable, relatively insignificant, self-absorbed dickweed anyway.
It is wrong to enter war without clear intentions to win. Political correctness has no place in a conflict of this stature.
I am certainly no authority on war or the military but the greatest army in the world against a 3rd world country should not have lasted this long nor had so many American deaths. It might not have been pretty and may have upset the world but, hey, we can never please the world anyway.
Innocents lose their lives in war. Being afraid to take out insurgent neighborhoods has cost us dearly....and will continue to.
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