From Dissident Voice June 23, 2004

There he goes again. Here's what Bill O'Reilly had to say on his June 17 broadcast of The Radio Factor: O'REILLY: Because look ... when 2 percent of the population feels that you're doing them a favor, just forget it, you're not going to win. You're not going to win. And I don't have any respect by and large for the Iraqi people at all. I have no respect for them. I think that they're a prehistoric group that is -- yeah, there's excuses.

Sure, they're terrorized, they've never known freedom, all of that. There's excuses. I understand. But I don't have to respect them because you know when you have Americans dying trying to you know institute some kind of democracy there, and 2 percent of the people appreciate it, you know, it's time to -- time to wise up.

And this teaches us a big lesson, that we cannot intervene in the Muslim world ever again. What we can do is bomb the living daylights out of them, just like we did in the Balkans. Just as we did in the Balkans. Bomb the living daylights out of them. But no more ground troops, no more hearts and minds, ain't going to work. O'Reilly also declared the Iraqis are 'just people who are primitive.'

The Fox news host has a history of making racist remarks and advocating the mass murder of civilians. When four armed US mercenaries were killed in Fallujah, O'Reilly commented: 'Problems continue for the U.S. Military in Fallujah. Why doesn't the U.S. Military just go ahead and level it?' He made it clear he doesn't 'care about the people of Fallujah' and that 'we know what the final solution should be.' Apparently, the mass slaughter of hundreds of civilians in Fallujah by the US military just didn't do it for O'Reilly.

O'Reilly's bloodlust also extended to Afghanistan. A few days after 9/11 he declared 'the U.S. should bomb the Afghan infrastructure to rubble-the airport, the power plants, their water facilities, and the roads' if the Afghan government did not extradite Osama bin Laden. O'Reilly continued: 'This is a very primitive country. And taking out their ability to exist day to day will not be hard. Remember, the people of any country are ultimately responsible for the government they have. The Germans were responsible for Hitler. The Afghans are responsible for the Taliban. We should not target civilians. But if they don't rise up against this criminal government, they starve, period.'

The Geneva Convention states that destroying infrastructure essential to the survival of civilian populations is a war crime and the 'starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited.' Besides being an obvious racist, O'Reilly is an advocate of targeting and killing civilians (non-white folks, of course) that clearly constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

When the United States deliberately targeted and systematically destroyed Iraq's water treatment facilities during the first Gulf War in order to create 'favorable conditions for disease outbreaks, particularly in major urban areas' (according to a 1991 U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency document) and followed that with a deliberate policy of blocking humanitarian supplies to deny necessary repairs, medicines and medical equipment, Denis Halliday, former Deputy Under Secretary of the UN, declared the policy as 'genocidal.' O'Reilly is openly advocating genocidal tactics to be used against civilians -- proposals that would kill millions of civilians if they were carried out.

The virulent racism and fascist mindset of O'Reilly is also pervasive within the US military. The racist contempt of the Iraqis and blatant disregard for civilian lives by US troops in that country is disturbingly common. One need only look at the systematic torture at Abu Ghraib for confirmation, not to mention US troops murdering Iraqis by deliberately firing into crowds of unarmed protesters, dropping large bombs in urban neighborhoods, slaughtering wedding parties, engaging in collective punishment, house demolitions, kidnapping, torture, and firing into vehicles filled with civilians at military checkpoints. A number of American troops perceive Iraqis as 'untermenschen' -- the Nazi expression for 'sub-humans.'

To those who object and protest such actions, O'Reilly suggests you just 'shut up' or you will be declared an 'enemy of the state.' He made his feelings about dissent pretty clear shortly before the war started. On February 26, 2003 he said:

'Once the war against Saddam Hussein begins, we expect every American to support our military, and if you can't do that, just shut up. Americans, and indeed our foreign allies who actively work against our military once the war is underway, will be considered enemies of the state by me. Just fair warning to you, Barbara Streisand and others who see the world as you do. I don't want to demonize anyone, but anyone who hurts this country in a time like this, well. Let's just say you will be spotlighted.'

You are either with us or against us. America über alles. Sound familiar?



--Thomas Wheeler is a contributing editor to Alternative Press Review. He can be reached at: thomasdwheeler@comcast.net.