O'Reilly Tells Brook:
`That's What the Nazis Did'
Right-wing talk show host Bill O'Reilly interviewed Yaron Brook on his TV show "The O'Reilly Factor" on Dec. 17, 2004. Here are excerpts:
Bill O'Reilly: Joining us now, from Irvine, California, is Dr. Yaron Brook, president of the Ayn Rand Institute. Your Institute is now calling for harsher military measures in Iraq. Is that what you want to see?
Brook: Oh, absolutely. We want to see the rules of engagement in Iraq changed completely.... The only way to win this insurgency is for the military to be a lot more brutal in fighting the insurgents than it is today....
O'Reilly: ... But you're not suggesting, doctor, that U.S. soldiers execute captured Iraqis, are you?
Brook: I'm suggesting that we start bringing this war to the civilians—the consequences of this war, to the civilians that are harboring and helping and supporting the insurgents in Fallujah and other places.
O'Reilly: By doing what?
Brook: I would like to see the United States turn Fallujah into dust; and tell the Iraqis that if you are going to continue to support the insurgents, you will not have homes, not have mosques....
O'Reilly: But then we'd be Nazis! that's what the Nazis did.
Brook: No, we wouldn't be Nazis.
O'Reilly: Oh, yeah, we would!
Brook: No, we're the good guys, Bill, here. We're fighting—
O'Reilly: The Nazis thought they were good guys too. That's what the Nazis did.
Brook: It's irrelevant what you think you are. The question is what you truly are.
O'Reilly: Does it make any difference? Perception is reality.
Brook: We are fighting in self-defense for the United States. We are fighting here for the lives of Americans.
O'Reilly: You must realize the rest of the world doesn't see it that way. The Nazi doctrine was, in occupied territories, if you kill one Nazi, we kill 100 of you. If you attack us, we knock down your town....
Brook: Look what Sherman did at the end of the Civil War, by going in and burning Atlanta, by going after the civilian population. That's what we need to do, too. That's what we did in World War II.
O'Reilly: You're going to create more enemies.
Brook: How did we end World War II? By dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We did not create more enemies; we actually created friends, and ultimately, a free Japan. We brought the Japanese people to their knees, and that is the only way you can establish a democracy in a culture that is so opposed to freedom, is bring their culture to its knees.
