Bill O’Reilly Says His Iraq War Coverage ‘Still Haunts’ Him — Pushes for Iran Escalation Anyway

Conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly acknowledged that his support for the Iraq War remains a source of personal regret even as he argued President Donald Trump must escalate military action against Iran, saying he sees “no other way” to stop Tehran following the collapse of the countries’ ceasefire.

Speaking on his No Spin News YouTube show on Wednesday, O’Reilly reacted to Trump’s declaration that the ceasefire with Iran was effectively “over” after the regime allegedly violated the terms of the June memorandum of understanding by attacking commercial shipping and U.S. military assets in the region.

“Now the president’s threatening to bomb Iran tonight,” O’Reilly said. “Nobody knows what’s going to happen because these threats come and they go, but this has got to stop.”

“I don’t see any other way but military to stop it,” he continued.

O’Reilly then reflected on his support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq: “And I made a mistake with the Iraq situation, and that haunts me to this day,” he said. “And the reason I made that mistake is that I didn’t fully understand the facts of the matter. I was taking reporting from The New York Times and others that said [former Iraqi dictator] Saddam Hussein was harboring deadly weapons. OK?

“Turned out to be wrong,” he added. “Didn’t have any weapons of mass destruction, and the chaos that ensued brought a lot of pain on America. I was wrong. I was wrong. OK, there’s a reason I was wrong, but that still haunts me.”

Despite that admission, O’Reilly said of Iran: “Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t see any other way here. “I don’t see any other way.”

He went on to call for sweeping military action against Iran’s infrastructure, saying, “You’re going to have to just blast their infrastructure and make it almost impossible for the Persians to exist day to day. You have to blow up all their facilities, all their power, all of that.”

O’Reilly blamed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps rather than the country’s clerical leadership for the renewed hostilities, arguing the paramilitary force “controls what happens in Iran.”

“I believe Iran’s going to get hit militarily very soon,” O’Reilly said. “President Trump has to reignite his momentum, and the mullahs are just not cooperating. And I don’t think they will cooperate until the pain level gets very, very high.”

Watch above via YouTube.

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