Life as a Spectator Sport

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Friday, June 18, 2004

An Ugly American

Via Media Matters for America, this lovely quote from Bill O'Reilly's The Radio Factor (after a poll that showed that only 2 percent of Iraqis view U.S. troops as liberators and 55 percent would feel safer if U.S. troops left the country immediately):
Because look ... when 2 percent of the population feels that you're doing them a favor, just forget it, you're not going to win. You're not going to win. And I don't have any respect by and large for the Iraqi people at all. I have no respect for them. I think that they're a prehistoric group that is -- yeah, there's excuses.

Sure, they're terrorized, they've never known freedom, all of that. There's excuses. I understand. But I don't have to respect them because you know when you have Americans dying trying to you know institute some kind of democracy there, and 2 percent of the people appreciate it, you know, it's time to -- time to wise up.

And this teaches us a big lesson, that we cannot intervene in the Muslim world ever again. What we can do is bomb the living daylights out of them, just like we did in the Balkans. Just as we did in the Balkans. Bomb the living daylights out of them. But no more ground troops, no more hearts and minds, ain't going to work.

[...]

They're just people who are primitive.
Sheesh! You think people like Bill O'Reilly might be one of the reasons the Iraqis would feel safer if the Americans just left?

Update: minor editing for clarification and to use the full name of Media Matters for America
posted by Liz @ 9:39 PM     |


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