Normally, the antics of blowhard Bill O’Reilly are not worth commenting on. He’s an idiot, a tool, and a liar and anyone with half a brain realizes these things. He’s really outdone himself this week though. In seeking to defend US troops who may have killed Iraqi civilians, he argues to Wesley Clark that massacres by American soldiers are nothing new. His example is the Malmedy Massacre, an infamous incident from the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. According to “Papa Bear”, SS troops surrendered and were then cut down by Americans. As if often the case, O’Reilly got things completely backwards. It was of course surrendered US troops that were massacred by the SS. True to form, O’Reilly has not issued an apology or a correction and the Fox transcription has substituted “Normandy” for “Malmedy” to make him look less stupid. Later in the week Keith Olbermann took O’Reilly to task, excoriating the buffoon in hilarious style. You can see the piece here:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/06/01.html#a8537

Now it is true that American soldiers in WWII killed enemy soldiers trying to surrender, particularly in the Pacific Theater. To think that justifies killing civilians today is, of course, ridiculous. Such tortured logic is par for the course for Bill O’Reilly.