Juan Williams: Iraqi Protesters Are 'Ingrate(s)' Who Should Appreciate U.S. Invasion

[meegbear]

Last night on “The O’Reilly Factor,” host Bill O’Reilly slammed Muntader al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush, and said that if he had been there, he “would have physically taken the guy down.” Guest Juan Williams agreed, but he widened his condemnation to Iraqis in general, who he said were behaving like “ingrate(s)” for not appreciating what the United States has done for them:

WILLIAMS: But on a serious level, how many American lives have been sacrificed to the cause of liberating Iraq? How much money has been spent while they’re not spending their own profits from their oil? American money. So I just think it’s absolutely the act of an ingrate for them to behave in this way. Just unbelievable to me.

<snip>

Last month, National Review’s Andy McCarthy was similarly frustrated by Iraqis’ failure to shower their occupiers with thanks and gratitude:

Thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions in taxpayer funds have been expended to provide Iraqis the opportunity to live freely. And this despite the facts that (a) the U.S. interest in Iraqi democracy remains tenuous…and (b) Americans were assured, when the nation-building enterprise commenced, that oil-rich Iraq would underwrite our sacrifices on its behalf. Yet, to be blunt, the Iraqis remain ingrates. That stubborn fact complicates everything.

<snip>

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/16/williams-iraqi-ingrates/

You can see the clip of that douchebag Juan Willaims at the link above.

[el_bryanto]

1. Yeah

I've heard that - I got one friend who still seems to think we are going to make out eventually from our 'special relationship' with Iraq.

Bryant

[BOSSHOG]

2. o'lielly would have physically taken the guy down!!

There ya go again bill knowing that your audience likes fake cowboys and fake he-men and fake patriots.

[wilt the stilt]

10. I'll take the 28

year old vs. the almost 60 year old in a street fight any day. Especially one from the mideast.

[marylanddem]

3. Collaborators. If there were war trials after this Iraq fiasco,

Juan Williams & every damned pseudo-journalist would be on trial as a collaborator. I heard the same crap from CNN yesterday - how the journalist had embarrassed the profession, embarrassed other Iraqi journalists - my God, do these people feel anything but their own egotism?

[sinkingfeeling]

4. "Liberating Iraq"?? I though The Decider said we had to invade Iraq because of Saddam and all of his

nukes and other WMDs! Has history been rewritten or don't these jerks have any memory cells?

[derby378]

5. Here's a short list of things the Iraqis should be ungrateful for...

Loss of consistent, reliable utilities such as water and electricity in many urban areas
Lack of adequate hospitals to care for ill and/or wounded civilians
Vandalism at various ancient historic sites, including the ruins of Babylon
Theft and/or vandalism of many ancient Mesopotamian artifacts entrusted to Iraqi museums
Displacement of Christians and other religious minorities as a result of religious civil war
Loss of civil rights for Iraqi women in many areas of the country
Possible use of white phosphorous in the suppression of Fallujah, in violation of international law
Blackwater
Halliburton
KBR
Abu Ghraib

Should I go on? :shrug:

[izquierdista]

6. If that's what he likes

I'm sure the boyz in the 'hood can arrange a little home invasion for him.

[SoCalDem]

7. Probably EVERY Iraqi knows someone who was killed or maimed by the military action we precipitated

Middle Eastern/Islamic cultures are famous for their ability to hold a grudge.. They are still killing each other over stuff that happened thousands of years ago..(remember Kosovo?)

If someone kills a friend or family member, or is responsible for a grievous injury to someone you love, would you expect them to smile & offer to shake hands?

In a culture that honors revenge and sponsors "honor-killings", a few tossed shoes is small potatoes..

[baby_mouse]

8. .

.

[rurallib]

9. Juan Williams makes me ill.

[lurky]

11. So, one of the "Liberal Voices" on Fox shows his true colors.

And so much for the reasonable "Political Analyst" persona he puts on for NPR. To think that he and Cokie Roberts are what NPR considers insightful Washington commentators is mind-blowing.

[MisterP]

12. technically, the Cold Warriors/neocons ARE recycling "liberal" rhetoric from the 40s

against Nazism, which sublimated into "global Communism" in 1946-49 (visualized as monolothic Stalinism for 36 years after Stalin's death!), then sublimated again into "Islamofascism" in 2001-02
it's the same cretins who've been screaming this at the top of their lungs since McCarthy
They see the U.S. world mission as bringing democracy, "economic freedom," and "prosperity" to the world, saving it from the ultimate evil of Totaliaranism: it's very Manichean, and its rhetoric is very earnest. This then justifies fighting any "tentacle" of the "terror state," directly leading to the deaths of 2 million Vietnamese, 70,000 Salvadorans, 30,000 Nicaraguans, etc., etc.