O'Reilly blames the "indigenous population of Iraq" for not trying to have a free society

[sabra]

http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2007/05/mccain_tells_or.html#more

<snip>

O'Reilly: "I was wrong. I supported the war, I thought it would go um the way of Afghanistan and Kuwait after the First Gulf War, that is that the indigenous population of Iraq would cooperate with the United States in trying to have a free society, they have not. That is the crux of the failure in Iraq, am I wrong?

McCain: "You're right as to what happened, but you are wrong in this respect;

we were welcomed as liberators. They wanted to get rid of this terrible guy and his incredible satanical sadistic sons, and the kind of regime they lived under. What happened was that we didn't do what we did in Bosnia, we didn't do what we did in Kosovo, we didn't do what we should have done in Rwanda, and that was that we didn't have enough troops on the ground to enforce an order.

"We allowed the looting to start with, we never had enough troops there. It's been well chronicled in Fiasco, in Cobra Two and other books the way the war was mismanaged. But I think it was because the mismanagement of the war, I think if we'd have done the right thing, you would see a peaceful Iraq today like you see a peaceful other places where we've gone in to, to try to bring in a, a democracy and a free society."

[LostinVA]

1. Does he mean the citizens of a sovereign nation?

[Jim__]

2. "free society" meaning the society we think they should have - n/t

[Skidmore]

3. So, BillyO, when do we set up the reservations?

Asshole.

[CJCRANE]

4. Bush-Cheney don't give a f*** about democracy.

That's the problem.

[yurbud]

7. they want to give Iraqis same kind Bush Cheney want here--

enough of the appearance of democracy to prevent a revolution, but not so much that people can actually change major policies.

[yurbud]

5. He's right if by free he means

giving away their country for free to oil companies.

[KharmaTrain]

6. More Wife Beatings From The Master

Actually he could have said the truth..."Why is MY oil under their sand"...and he'd be saying the same thing.

Now wasn't BillO supposed to eat crow about no WMDs? I know, I know...he never had credibility, never will. But then that's what makes the Big Head such fun to kick around.

Now when someone says the GOOP doesn't have an exit strategy, now you have it. All failures in Iraq were because of those ingrateful Iraqis and us dirty fuckin' hippies. Keep spinning into irrelevance, BillO.

[wtmusic]

8. You were wrong, and half a million innocent people are dead

now be a good little Samurai....

[VP505]

9. What all these

"tools" can't seem to get is that they (the Iraqi) have NO interest in living or being like Americans. They have their OWN culture and their OWN way of living and doing things, they want to be free to do that WITHOUT the US sticking their collective big nose in their business and telling them how they should or should not be. I am sure that they are grateful to be rid of Saddam, I also suspect that they (Iraqi) will be glad to be rid of the US occupying forces even more than being rid of Saddam.

[greyl]

16. Agreed. Cultural arrogance. nt

[WinkyDink]

10. And it was our role to overthrow Saddam because.......???

[TlalocW]

11. Wait a minute...

Who was in charge when we were dealing with Bosnia and Kosovo? Oh, that's right... Bill Clinton. So basically, if only Georgie-poo had been as smart as Clinton Iraq would be a free society?

TlalocW

[sabra]

13. I noticed that too... he is spinning out of control

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. "...go um the way of Afghanistan and Kuwait..."

Kuwait? Oh, yeah, I remember how the ruling family in Kuwait relinquished all power and turned the country into a western democracy. That happened...when?

And it is going the way of Afghanistan. In another couple years there won't be any effective central government and the various regions will be controlled by opposing factions and warlords.

He might have picked better examples of success, methinks.

[tabasco]

23. Things are going swimmingly in Afghanistan, aren't they?

The Taliban were just doing some sport shooting when they accidentally shot down that Chinook the other day.

[ComerPerro]

14. So if McCain says we didn't do things right in Iraq, why did he spend the last 4 years defending it?

[Clark2008]

15. Indigenous population?

Does he think they're animals?

That wording sounds more like "Wild Kingdom" than a news program.

[greyl]

17. ? Humans are animals, and indigenous is a perfect word to describe some cultures.

Indigenous Cultures

The future of our planet depends on saving both the remaining biologically diverse ecosystems and the cultural, credible diversity of the tribal peoples of the world. The ancient cultures of native peoples, threatened by modern assimilation, are the only known, proven time-tested models for the sustainable consumption of the Earth’s threatened natural resources.

Native Planet hopes that you enjoy our cultural documentaries that will show you the fascinating world of indigenous peoples and their unique cultures—and why the preservation of their tribal lifeways is essential to a world where life is sustainable and both cultural diversity and biological diversity flourish.
http://www.nativeplanet.org/indigenous/indigenous.shtml

There's more than enough good reason to harshly criticize O'Reilly. His use of "indigenous" isn't one. (Unless he meant to describe suburban Iraqis who, last I checked, had achieved more doctorates than any other country on earth)

[Clark2008]

19. I just so rarely see it used to describe modern humans and their

cities/trappings, etc.

I know that, technically, it's correct. I just wouldn't have used that wording.

[greyl]

22. That's because most Homo Sapiens Sapiens (modern humans) on the planet

are unfortunately now part of our globalized consumer culture(civilization) with all its cities/trappings. ;)

If O'Reilly meant "all people who were born and remain anywhere in Iraq", he made yet another ignorant asshole blunder.
There goes his next Peabody Award.

[dave_p]

18. It's legitimate

"Born therein", native - but it's a very weird use for the population of an invaded country: of course they're indigenous, their country was invaded. "Population" would be more appropriate. International law sometimes uses "protected population" (because the occupier's responsible for their wellbeing): I think we can see why that might not spring to mind in this instance.

[Clark2008]

20. Exactly. I think population or native population would have

just SOUNDED more appropriate. That's all.

[dave_p]

21. Yes indeed

... and I hope nobody thought I was suggesting his inane comments were legitimate, just that word, in a why-the-fuck-would-anybody-use-that-word kinda way.

I think he just wanted a big word to put in there.