O'reilly flip-flops on Iraq

[Neomega]

I couldn't believe it when I heard it:

You can watch the video here:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/05/31.html#a8518

Basically, he calls Iraq an "optional war" and says we need to get out, because the fighting there will never end.

 

[sysyphus]

Can we expect to see him and Cindy Sheehan marching arm in arm?

 

[Xanikk999]

I honestly dont mind flip flopping from anyone. As long as they dont do it constantly just in thier interest.

It looks like O'reilly has opened up to the truth and he called iraq "a learning experience" that we should of not done and shouldnt repeat in the future.

I just wonder if bush will admit it?

 

[Babbler]

Wow, he can show some reason, only 3 years after the fact.

 

[sysyphus]

I honestly dont mind flip flopping from anyone. As long as they dont do it constantly just in thier interest.

Very true, I hate term flip-flopping. People should not be discouraged from opening their minds to other points of view.

 

[Neomega]

I honestly dont mind flip flopping from anyone. As long as they dont do it constantly just in thier interest.

It looks like O'reilly has opened up to the truth and he called iraq "a learning experience" that we should of not done and shouldnt repeat in the future.

I just wonder if bush will admit it?

Very nice O'reilly, but we already had a learnign experience, it was called Vietnam, and we are failing for many of the same reasons, number 1 being no clear exit strategy.

 

[tomsnowman123]

O'reilly has finnaly seen the light. Is it too much to hope that our President will see it soon to?

 

[Xanikk999]

Very nice O'reilly, but we already had a learnign experience, it was called Vietnam, and we are failing for many of the same reasons, number 1 being no clear exit strategy.

True but vietnam was fought for different reasons. And we did actually remove sadams leadership and defeat his army. Its just the insurgents that were the problem.

 

[Neomega]

True but vietnam was fought for different reasons. And we did actually remove sadams leadership and defeat his army. Its just the insurgents that were the problem.

Yes, no exit strategy. Either that, or we have an even worse problem, total incompetance at the highest level that did not expect an insurgency.

I know most American generals would have expected, I wonder who would have the authority to silence them, and say Iraq is going to go the way he envisions, and pick the generals who agree with him to draw up the exit strategy.

 

[VoodooAce]

I wonder how many people he's torn up in the last three years for saying the same thing? And just for being a little 'quicker' than he is....

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I woudld just like to day that Vietnam and Iraq are two very different wars fought very differently and for very differnet reasons. True, they both include(d) an informal guerilla force opposing us ( since no army can best us in a fair fight, thats why people fight us that way in the first place, its much in the same way that Spain resisted Napoleon) and 'no clear exist strategy' (a term you all should be ashamed of using at it proves youve allowed yourselves to be brainwashed by liberal media soundbytes)
but please dont compare them, they are just too different and to associate Iraq with the quagmire that was Vietnam is just wrong, and insulting to all involved

that said, Im glad some people in the world have open minds, even if it is three years coming

 

[MobBoss]

I couldn't believe it when I heard it:

You can watch the video here:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/05/31.html#a8518

Basically, he calls Iraq an "optional war" and says we need to get out, because the fighting there will never end.

Uhm, no, you are incorrect. While he did use the words "optional war" he in no way what-so-ever said we needed to get out. He said that its quite possible for us to still in in Iraq but to leave now would only empower Iran and make it the dominant power in the region. He even took Murtha to task for saying we should leave now.

Bottom line he said Iraq should stand as a lesson learned for us in the future and that we should be extremely careful in the future before invading another country in the region. Not exactly a "flip flop" of what he has already stated before.

 

[nihilistic]

True but vietnam was fought for different reasons. And we did actually remove sadams leadership and defeat his army. Its just the insurgents that were the problem.

They both include the US attempting to "liberate" a region that may or may not want to be "liberated", the US overestimating the appeal of the American culture while underestimating the resentment over previous US foreign policies, a US occupying force that do not care or didn't care enough about the very people they are fighting the war for (whenever casualties numbers are mentioned when you ever hear about Iraqi casualties, for example), and the pretenses for both wars are ideological rather than practical in nature.

 

[nihilistic]

Bottom line he said Iraq should stand as a lesson learned for us in the future and that we should be extremely careful in the future before invading another country in the region. Not exactly a "flip flop" of what he has already stated before.

That would not have been a flip-flop is the Bush administration didn't deride people who advised before the war that we should exercise more "care" in starting a war in that region.

 

[Caprice]

Uhm, no, you are incorrect. While he did use the words "optional war" he in no way what-so-ever said we needed to get out. He said that its quite possible for us to still in in Iraq but to leave now would only empower Iran and make it the dominant power in the region.

I'm glad that someone said this before I did. I already deleted the file that included the talking points memo so I wouldn't have put it as susinctly as you.

 

[.Shane.]

If any of you remember, he said, prior to the war, something like if no WMD were found he'd never believe or support Bush again. (something like that, I'll try and find it).

Anyway, he kinda forgot he said that.

 

[JohnRM]

People can change their minds. There is nothing wrong with that. As long as he does not do it more than once.

 

[Neomega]

'no clear exist strategy' (a term you all should be ashamed of using at it proves youve allowed yourselves to be brainwashed

yes, brainwashed by the media that heralded the glorious return of our soldiers from Gulf War I.

One of the many reasons we were credited with such success was, as the brainwashing machine, Colen Powell pointed out, we had a "clear exit strategy".

That is where the term comes from.

by liberal media soundbytes)

Sounds like someone has been on spin cycle in the right-wing radio brainwashing machine, or maybe it was the right-wing blog. doesn't matter, both are cheap and poorly constructed.

 

[.Shane.]

Ah, yes, here it is. On Good Morning America, date, 3.18.03, O'Reilly said:

Bill O'Reilly:
And I said on my program, if -- if -- the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again.

Since I think O'Reilly is to political discourse what the Kids of Widney High are to music, I've never paid much attention to his show. But, I have the sneaking suspicion he's not kept this promise....

 

[.Shane.]

Bottom line he said Iraq should stand as a lesson learned for us in the future and that we should be extremely careful in the future before invading another country in the region. Not exactly a "flip flop" of what he has already stated before.

Its a flip-flop and its not particularly brilliant. The problem is that its one thing to say "oops" if you just spilled a glass of milk. Its another thing to say "oops" when there are 10s of 1000s of dead civilians, 2000+ dead Americans, 1000s of new terrorists, a country that has about a 50-50 chance of disintegrating into total anarchy after we leave, another war (Afghanistan) that should've taken precedence that now is also turning into a mess due to resource and attention diversion, etc.... you just don't chalk that up to a "lesson learned", unless of course you're a total ahole.

Especially given that the war was a sham in the first place and that many, many people, even from w/in Bush's own party, had they just been listened too, this whole fricking pathetic joke could've been avoided.

Oh well, "oops"