Les Jones

News > Michael Moore on the O'Reilly Factor

Just caught the show. O'Reilly rightly called Moore on his claims that Bush lied about WMDs, pointing out that the Butler report, British intelligence, and Russian intelligence all thought Iraq had WMDs. Moore responded by saying that psychopaths believe in what they're doing, too.

O'Reilly missed an opportunity. He should have pointed out that Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Madeleine Albright, and others are on record as saying that Iraq had WMDs, based on the same intelligence, prior to George Bush being in office. In other words, the WMD claim was based on intelligence collected during the Clinton administration, not the Bush administration. If it was a lie for Bush, then it was a lie for Clinton, Gore, and all the rest.

Moore kept asking O'Reilly if he would sacrifice his children to remove a dictator. O'Reilly said he would sacrifice himself, but wouldn't put the question in those terms. That's perfectly fair, in my opinion. Parents of U.S. soldiers don't "sacrifice" their children. First of all, it's not the parent's decision that their children join the military.

Second, let's define what we mean by children. A soldier may be his parents' child, but he's not a child; he's an adult. Children don't fight wars for the U.S. Adults do.

We have an all-volunteer army in this country. Adults can choose to do what they want with their lives, including joining the military. Democrats are trying to affect a paternalistic attitude towards the military, and from what I can tell the military doesn't want it, and what's more they don't trust the Democrat's motives. Neither do I.

LATER: Donald Sensing makes the same point about it being the adult child's choice. His son just joined the Marines.

P.S. I'm shocked that the Democrats are including Michael Moore on the podium. He may be box office dynamite right now, but I expect him to be ballot box poison by November.