Hours before the United States and Israeli militaries began bombing Iranian targets in an open-ended conflict with no clear goal, Fox News’ two biggest advocates for such strikes made the case for war.
Fox’s Sean Hannity and Mark Levin share close ties to President Donald Trump and a decades–old desire for regime change in Iran. Both encouraged the president to launch strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last year, and, as U.S. forces amassed in the Middle East in recent weeks, used their programs once again to urge him to attack. By contrast, others on the right are bitterly opposed to U.S. strikes on Iran, and several of their Fox colleagues have avoided talking about the prospect of war.
On Friday night, Levin went on Hannity’s program to weigh in on what was, at the time, an impending U.S. strike.
The Trump administration has largely avoided giving a detailed rationale for war, and Levin and Hannity sought to fill that void. The Fox hosts did not argue that Iran was an imminent threat to the United States or declare that the U.S. would bring freedom, democracy, and human rights to the Iranian people. Instead, they said that Iran’s government is evil; that it could, at some point decades from now, pose a threat; that the United States is capable of destroying that government at little cost; and thus, that it should do so.
Hannity began their discussion by mocking those who prefer negotiations to military strikes as “isolationists” who are “so naive and on a level so ignorant about the history of evil in the world."
The host then turned to Levin, who began by praising Trump as someone who “believes in peace” before warning: “If this Islamic Nazi terrorist mass killing regime gets a nuclear weapon, will they use it? The answer is yes."
The New York Times noted Thursday that the administration’s claims “that Iran has restarted its nuclear program, has enough available nuclear material to build a bomb within days, and is developing long-range missiles that will soon be capable of hitting the United States” are “false or unproven.” But Levin argued that the lack of an imminent threat should not stay the president’s hand, because future U.S. generations could be endangered if Iran were to obtain a nuclear weapon.
“This president knows right from wrong,” Levin claimed. “He knows good from evil. He knows that this regime is a death cult. And he knows that there's only really two countries that are prepared and willing to put an end to this. That's the United States of America and the state of Israel. And if we don't do it, it's not going to be done. And if we don't do it, our children and grandchildren are going to face thousands of ballistic missiles that can reach the continental United States, scores of nuclear warheads, chemical warheads, biological warheads."
“We don't need to put up with their crap,” he concluded. “It's time to put it to an end.”
Hannity replied by stressing that a U.S. war with Iran would be easy, with little threat to American service members.
“I think the Trump doctrine is perfect, especially in light of the next-generation weaponry that has evolved,” he said. “And I've always said that I think future wars are not going to be fought on a battlefield. They'll be fought from air-conditioned offices somewhere, you know, in a room."
“And what is so amazing about the Trump doctrine — no forever wars, no boots on the ground, we’ll have the latest, greatest, best technology available, military technology available,” Hannity added.
Hannity went on to suggest that Americans who oppose striking Iran are “ignorant” and would have allowed Adolf Hitler to seize Europe, claiming that “that's the same radical mindset that's in Iran."
“The isolationists brought us Hitler,” Levin agreed, concluding, “When you have a seventh-century barbaric, primitive terrorist mass murdering regime with 21st century technology and they're unwilling to get rid of it, you better take them out because they're going to take you out."
“Well said,” Hannity replied.
During a Fox & Friends victory lap this morning after the strikes started, Levin lauded Trump as a “great president” and a “great leader” who will be talked about “for decades and decades, if not centuries.”
Addressing critics of the war, Levin said, “The president did this for several reasons, and you have to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to understand what they are. In other words, you have to be intentionally trying to undermine our troops and him."
Reprinted with permission from Media Matters
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