Send in the Clown

Wasting time keeping track of the latest idiocies emanating from Bill O'Reilly is a job best left to Keith Olbermann, who certainly seems to relish the task. But occasionally, Fox News' biggest blowhard utters something that almost no one could resist noting. But before that happens, let's review a few of Bill's pronoucements and opinions about Saddam Hussein, evil despot:

We know that for 25 years Saddam Hussein tortured, murdered and brutalized his people.

Why, yes, Bill, yes we do. And for almost half of that time, US administrations supported him.

After suffering so long through the horrors of Saddam ...

Truly a bad man. But now, after first deriding the press for misleading coverage that he believed wrongly portrayed Iraq as more chaotic and violent than he believed it was -- his truthy gut far more atuned to "what's on the ground" than reporters actually there -- it seems Bill has finally succumbed to all that media fiction. Even O'Reilly now sees that Iraq is in a state of mayhem. And who is the man O'Reilly now holds in high regard? Why Saddam Hussein, of course. The man clearly knew what he was doing:

See, if I’m president, I got probably another 50-60 thousand with orders to shoot on sight anybody violating curfews. Shoot them on sight. That’s me… President O’Reilly… Curfew in Ramadi, seven o’clock at night. You’re on the street? You’re dead. I shoot you right between the eyes. Ok? That’s how I run that country. Just like Saddam ran it. Saddam didn’t have explosions - he didn’t have bombers. Did he? because if you got out of line, you’re dead.

Seems fairly simple; send in O'Reilly and he'll have things in Iraq back to normal in no time. Just like under Saddam, which is really what the Bush adminstration would actually prefer. As is fairly obvious at this point, a US-friendly, strong-arm dictator would be hugely preferrable for the White House compared to this messy democracy nonsense. As for most supporters of the war, the Iraq effort is about solutions through shooting, really the only path of policy people like Bill O'Reilly find at all appealing.

[via Phillybits]