Bill O’Reilly made a promise before we launched the invasion of Iraq (emphasis mine).
Right before U.S. forces invaded Iraq, O’Reilly made a bold promise on ABC about Iraq’s WMDs: “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, all right?”
Last week, thanks to persistent needling from ABC host Charlie Gibson, O’Reilly mustered a half-hearted apology: “Well, my analysis was wrong and I’m sorry.. I was wrong. I’m not pleased about it at all.” As to the promise to “never trust the Bush administration again,” he was considerably less forceful: “I am much more skeptical of the Bush administration now than I was at that time,” he explained, before blaming CIA chief George Tenet for Bush’s troubles.
This is what O’Reilly has to say today:
…if there is a possibility of stabilizing things in Iraq, and there is, my stated opinion is to support one last attempt to do that.
Therefore, Harry Reid is wrong to force a timetable and try to cut funding at this moment. He and Speaker Pelosi are putting American troops in a very bad position. The soldiers and marines fighting in Iraq know what’s going on in Washington and it affects them.
This Harry Reid is an interesting character. We’ve tried to for years to get him on “The Factor”. He will not step up. He used to be a moderate Democrat, but has moved sharply to the left. He and Speaker Pelosi are now soul mates.
Be that as it may, if the Democrats make things harder for American troops, that will damage their chances in 2008. The fair solution is to allow President Bush one last chance to stabilize Iraq with the money he needs to do it. If the president fails, he’ll go down in history alongside Warren Harding and James Buchanan.
If Mr. Bush succeeds, America and the world will be far better off. Either way, our troops need every resource the country can give them.
And that’s “The Memo.”
Even if you could support our excellent Asian adventures, provided they were executed a little better than the Korean, Vietnam, and Iraq wars, you’d still have to have some level of trust that the administration you empower to take on the excellent adventures has a base-line level of competency and a plan. But, as O’Reilly should freely admit, there is no basis for trusting this administration. Give them $121 billion more, with no strings attached? You must be crazy.
And this guy has the highest rated cable show on television?
