Think Progress has the transcript of warmonger William Kristol’s appearance on Fox News this morning. Kristol continued his calls for attacking Iran. Then he was asked a question.
QUESTION: You know, the down side, though, you know very well, to all of that being that we’re involved in Iraq and Afganistan. Also that Iran is much different than Iraq. It’s huge and more formidable.
KRISTOL: It is, but also the Iranian people dislike their regime. I think they would be – the right use of targeted military force — but especially if political pressure before we use military force – could cause them to reconsider whether they really want to have this regime in power. There are even moderates – they are not wonderful people — but people in the government itself who are probably nervous about Ahmadinejad’s recklessness.
This is why standing up to Iran right now is so important. They’re overreached. They and Hezbollah have recklessly overreached. They got cocky. This is the moment to set them back. I think a setback to Hezbollah could trigger changes in Iran. People can say, wait a second, what is Ahmadinejad doing to us. We’re alone. The Arab world is even against us. The Muslim world is against us. Let’s reconsider this reckless path that we’re on.
It’s not entirely clear what path Iran is on. They’ve been accused of pursuing nuclear weapons, but we have absolutely no proof that they doing anything the violates the nuclear anti-proliferation treaty. They’ve been accused of giving the orders to Hezbollah to attack an Israeli outpost and kidnap some soldiers. But there is no proof of that either. It’s hard to say who is more reckless, William Kristol or Ahmadinejad. And it should be remembered that Ahmadinejad has no power. He’s like the Dan Quayle of Iran. He makes idiotic comments that make people feel uncomfortable, but no one fears him.
But Kristol is someone people actually listen to. I mean, he was Dan Quayle’s chief-of-staff. He helped gin up the war in Iraq. And he and his bloodthristy cohorts told us back in 2002-2003 that the Iraqis hated their regime, and that there were moderates that could take over and govern. He was wrong back then and he is almost certainly wrong today.
If anyone in Washington that matters is still taking Bill Kristol seriously, we are in real trouble. His ideas are bankrupt. They’re based on lies and delusions. His ideas have already cost tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars. And they have made America much less safe, much less respected, and much less powerful militarily, morally, and economically.
When people call for war based on unsubstantiated facts and terrible predictions they should be treated like pariahs. Bill Kristol is no better than David Duke. In fact, he’s worse. He’s worse because important and powerful people take his jive talk seriously. But, really, there’s an old saying down in Tennessee, about fool me once, Fool me once… Shame on…Shame on you…Ifulmuh can’t be fooled again.