Media Matters - O'Reilly again suggested employing Saddam's methods in Iraq:
"Summary: Fox News host Bill O'Reilly again suggested that Iraq should be run as it was under Saddam Hussein, stating: 'Saddam was able to control Iraq, as you know, and defeat insurgencies against him. The new Iraqi government can do the same, but it needs to get much tougher.' O'Reilly also declared that the American Civil Liberties Union, the BBC, and Air America Radio 'are helping the terrorists.'"
Were we not told we HAD to get rid of rid of Saddam because that's exactly the sort of thing he was famous for?
I confidently expect him to call for the use of gas on entire towns that consistently express their resistence to our benevolent rule.
Democracy and Freedom are messy things, Bill. The very concepts imply the freedom of dissent. And, as the night followeth the day, and as the dog returneth to it's vomit, oppression is what results in terrorism - the exact opposite of what you - if I may use the term loosely - think.
People who can express their dissent usefully and effectively without risk to their lives do that. In our nation, for instance, that right is defended by your personal great Satan, the American Civil Liberties Union, and joyfully expressed by the cleverer, better informed and much funnier folks at Air America and Comedy Central.
Now, many of you Authoritarian "bigger hammer" philosophy people make a big whup about how the founder of the ACLU was a Commie. Yeah, he was. Many sensible people were Communists in 1917. And many people were put in jail for their constitutionally-protected foolishness, so the correlation is hardly surprising, nor particularly damning.
And when Communism was dropped into the American Marketplace of ideas - well - how many Commies do YOU know that anyone paid much mind to? I mean, in order just to find a few, you have to stretch the definition beyond recognition.
And that was because the people who at first thought it was a good idea met some actual Communists - and they were about as much fun at parties as you are, my grim-jawed stalwart of truthiness.
Indeed, communism bombed as a philosophy and a social force even in China and Russia because it was co-opted by people JUST like you, Bill. That was the inevitable flaw of Communism in general and Marxist-Leninism in particular; it presumed that people could be trusted to put the welfare of others ahead of their own.
Well, yes - a great many can be. And they got ruthlessly exploited by those who cynically took advantage of their trustful natures. You know, like the folks that buy your books and Anne (The Man) Coulter's.
Now, Bill, you consistently refer to those who defend civil liberties and insist on speaking verifiable truths about the war in public that contradict the delusional, nay, outright magical thinking of the Right as "helping the terrorists."
That means you never have to actually address the facts.
And in a sense, to the extent that the goal of the Iraqi Insurgency is to make us get the hell out Iraq, you are correct. But then, as the saying goes, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
But that would put us on the wrong side of the war, a concept starkly incomprehensible to Bushites like you.
And that inability to consider dispassionately the fruits of policy and the results of actions taken in "defense" of our nation leads to such examples of public idiocy.
The Bush administration also needs to begin challenging those who are helping the enemy. The ACLU, for example, opposes just about every anti-terror strategy. This organization should be exposed.
The BBC also helps the enemy by consistently slanting the Iraq war coverage and portraying the coalition as villains. The vile Air America Radio network does the same thing.
Well, it is a fact that torture occurs. It is a fact that we, as a matter of deliberate, verifiable and documented policy, commit torture and subcontract it out to those less squeamish than us. This is despite strenuous, on-the-record objection from our own Counter-terrorism and Counter-intelligence experts, the FBI, who know full well that information gained in such ways is generally useless.
I also know that torture, and curfews imposed on pain of death and detention without trial are Un-American, no matter what the excuse. After all, if one sacrifices the constitution on the altar of "preserving our freedom," what HAS one achieved?
Yet another dusty, dull tyranny. I'm opposed to that, and I support anyone who is opposed to it having it imposed upon them. Even by us.
And if that comes to pass here, Mr. O'Rielly, not only will there be widespread resistance from domestic "freedom fighters," it's folks like you what will be first up against the wall - followed by those foolish enough to take you seriously.
For it's my true and cynical belief that anyone stupid enough to take you seriously is also too dumb to duck when the barricades go up and the guns start chattering.
tag: ethics, lies, iraq, reason, rationality, stupidity, stupid, Fox News, Bill O'Rielly, Media Matters, Saddam Hussain, propaganda, Air America, Comedy Central, Truthiness
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