Chris Matthews: Bush's 'Alamo' Grounds for Retirement, 'Terrified' of Bush on Iran


On MSNBC Wednesday night, during coverage of President Bush's speech to the nation, Chris Matthews compared Iraq to the "losing battle" of the "Alamo," calling it a "catastrophe," and contended that, if America were under a parliamentary system, that the President's handling of the war would be grounds for retirement. Matthews was further alarmed at Bush's apparent willingness to confront Iran over its nuclear program, as the MSNBC host contended that "a lot of people are going to go to bed tonight terrified," and even described himself as "worried" because of Bush's continued "neoconservative aggressiveness."

Matthews: "A lot of people are going to go to bed tonight terrified that the President of the United States admitted to mistakes in terms of implementing his policy over there ... I am worried, well, I shouldn't say I'm worried, I am definitely interested in the fact that the President of the United States maintains that neoconservative aggressiveness, the same attitude that we have the business in this world of going into countries when we don't like their weapons systems and deciding we're in the Middle East, we're going to attack." (Longer transcript follows)

Below is a transcript of some notable quotes from MSNBC's Wednesday January 10 speech coverage, co-hosted by Matthews and Keith Olbermann:

8:57 p.m.
Keith Olbermann: "I know the content will not be the same, not even close. The reality is not the same. But politically, is, to some degree, is the administration's hope here that they will be conveying the same feel, the same gravitas here as the Lyndon Johnson landmark speech to the nation about Vietnam in '68 when he basically threw in the towel and said we have to go back and start this all over again and do it differently from here on end?"

Chris Matthews: "Well, there's grounds for the President to retire based upon the mistakes made. He will not retire. We know he's much more steadfast than that politically and personally. But there's certainly grounds, if this were a parliamentary-style government, where the parliamentary members, the ministers of the government, the foreign minister, the chancellor, the ex-cheque and the prime minister himself, would say, like they did in the Suez campaign in Britain, this was a catastrophe. We went into a battle thinking it would be quickly won, we would turn over authority to the Iraqi National Congress or someone, and would get out of there. That was the way it was sold to the American people. After, I must say, the dishonest selling of why we went in there, they told us how easy we would get out. The President, I don't think, is going to dwell too much tonight on leaving Iraq ever. I firmly believe he wants permanent bases there. I believe the ideologues behind this war are insistent that the United States never leave in force from the Middle East. They want us there as a permanent constabulary, the big brother in the Middle East. They want us there. You're never going to hear them say we're coming home. And I think that's the difference between this President and Lyndon Johnson. At some level, Lyndon Johnson was humiliated by the war in Iraq. He was beaten by it. This President still has a star that leads him to a kind of a messianic thinking that somehow he's the essential man right now to keep us in that war. I do not hear in this a victory plan. I hear in this a delay pattern, a fight-it-out, an Alamo. But the Alamo was not a victorious battle for Texas or for the country. It was a losing battle."

9:20 p.m.
Matthews: "Well, the administration and its people have been accused of cherry-picking the evidence, the intel to get us into the war. Here they are cherry-picking the one hawkish Democrat in the U.S. Senate that they can claim as a bipartisan partner in this working group they're putting together."

10:04 p.m.
Matthews: "Well, you and I have flagged that issue of Iran. We'll see if the other journalists in the print media have done it as well. I'll tell you, a lot of people are going to go to bed tonight terrified that the President of the United States admitted to mistakes in terms of implementing his policy over there, but after listening to that briefing we just got from Tim and Brian, I am worried, well, I shouldn't say I'm worried, I am definitely interested in the fact that the President of the United States maintains that neoconservative aggressiveness, the same attitude that we have the business in this world of going into countries when we don't like their weapons systems and deciding we're in the Middle East, we're going to attack. If we're going to take the same attitude towards Iran that we took towards Iraq, and wait for them to do something we don't like in the weapons area, the nuclear weapons area, and attack that country, that's serious business. The American people should, by the way, get a hand in debating that sort of policy, with all its ramifications. The idea that we can go in there and knock out the Iranian nuclear facilities, such as they are, and not pay an extraordinary price in terms of our relations with the Islamic world, for someone to think that now after what we've been through for four years now, is to ignore the message here of history, which is it's always more complicated once you're in than it looks on your way in, and I think for the President to espouse, as he apparently did in this briefing today with the anchor people there who were privileged to get in the room with him, that he still thinks like that."

Olbermann: "Yup."

Matthews: "He still thinks in terms of a hair trigger -- we're going to go in there and knock it out, we're going to go in there the minute they do something, we're going to look and see if they're interacting in any way with Iraq and then we're going to war with them. That's a serious bit of business we've picked up on tonight. We'll see if the other journalists in the country are as sensitive to what looks to me like another front in the Middle East."


Comments Policy

All comments are owned by whoever posted them and are subject to our terms of use. They should not be assumed to represent the views of NewsBusters.

Viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Ok, I'm going to bed terrifie

Ok, I'm going to bed terrified now.

I stopped reading this drivel after " this president still has a star that leads him to a kind of messianic thinking.."

Also the host on Air America (where for the last 2yrs they have been saying we are going to attack Iran)  was saying bushs' plan is just more " onward christian soldiers" rhetoric. 

Imagine if bush had spent $20 million in federal money to fix up his favorite church in texas, like Mahmud did in Iran at the mosque where the 6 year old boy is supposed to appear from the well. After the world is plunged into darkness. I may be going to bed tonight worried about our world, but it certainly isn't because of the only president in the history of America to try to deal with terrorism. No matter how misguided I think some of it is.

I'll listen to a Persian Phd in international law (thanks to the "new media") long before I tune into someone like matthews. I think my tv was on messnbc for a total of about 10 min. last year. My 13 year old is already light years ahead of most of the msm. 

The Role of Hidden Imam in the history and the politics of the Islamic republic of Iran-Bahman Aghai Diba, PhD

I quit reading at the same time.

I quit reading at the same time. I laughed. It's like listening to a kookball tarot card reader anymore, when spittleboy opens his blubbering yap.

I frankly can't listen to any of these idiots anymore.

Now libboy on 360 CNN is claiming the militias give the Iraq prez his power. I don't know, I thought they had an election over there.

So, the top dog in Iraq is powerful because militias are running around slaughtering people and corrupting the police forces and new ING, according to the babbling idiot on CNN. I suppose if none of that were going on, all his power would be gone.

LOL - I guess Malaki is a demon vampire and feeds off the blood of the innocent. In that case, 360boy makes sense.

Whatever, it's so far gone from any sense whatsoever, or any explanation, they can just say whatever they want, as long as it sounds evil. Rinse and repeat, without ever explaining how or why the stated "known" is babbled out to begin with. What a smart aleck punk teenybopper would yap out as a cutdown to their sibling becomes the active reporting mindset and words of the msmlib press. It's pathetic.

Next 360boy whined about the cost, then displayed that Texas and California lost the most troops in Iraq. I turned it back to Fox H&C and Gingrich was on.

I don't even watch news anymore, nearly never, since I can expect a half hour or an hour of the libs whining about Iraq, for the hundred thousandth time. I guess they never get sick of it themselves. It's Bush Derangement Syndrome coupled with post Vietnam lib skumbag woodstock hate the usa punkism, and heck, they've been living it for 30 plus years so why stop now.

I'm wondering what the hell C

I'm wondering what the hell Chris Mathews and his ilk expect. Bush admits mistakes, so we're to be terrified by that. But if Bush didn't admit mistakes, what would Mathews have to say to that? Wait, let me guess.....we're to be terrified?

The twin crackpots, Mathews and Olbermoron. Keep it up, MessNBC, you're funnier than SNL.   

Just another example of how t

Just another example of how the libs CANNOT allow Iraq to work.  If we are able to grit it out and make a go of it (Which I am certain we can) then it will put the lie to their childhood which the focus of was to run from Vietnam.

Success in Iraq, puts liberals entire lifes history at stake.  Guys like Chris Mathews cannot have that.

I agree.  And that’s calle

I agree.  And that’s called treason.

Chris Matthews fears reality, but only when presented by R's

I know it's
hardly ethical, but if I were the President’s speechwriter, or even had a hand
in the review process, when he was talking about Iran
and Syria last night, and
how they’re helping kill Americans in Iraq, I'd have gone a bit
further. I’d have clearly offered the
diplomatic carrot (/bait for my political opponents to step into the
appeasement trap), but at the same time I'd have been...oh, shall we say, a
little free with quoting previous Democratic Presidents. After describing
the Iranian and Syrian support and aid in killing Americans, I'd have used
words, phrases, and paragraphs like:

"It would be
unworthy of a great Nation to exaggerate an isolated incident, or to become
inflamed by some one act of violence. But it would be inexcusable folly to
minimize such incidents in the face of evidence which makes it clear that the
incident is not isolated, but is part of a general plan. The important
truth is that these acts of international lawlessness are a manifestation of a
design which has been made clear to the American people for a long time. It is time for all Americans, Americans of
all the Americas to stop
being deluded by the romantic notion that the Americas can go on living happily
and peacefully in a Jihadi-dominated world.

Generation after generation, America has battled for the general
policy of the freedom of the seas. And that policy is a very simple one -- but
a basic, a fundamental one. It means that no Nation has the right to make the
broad oceans of the world at great distances from the actual theater of land
war unsafe for the commerce of others.

That has been our policy, proved time and time again, in
all our history.

There has now come a time when you and I must see the
cold, inexorable necessity of saying to these inhuman, unrestrained seekers of
world conquest and permanent world domination by the sword: "You seek to
throw our children and our children's children into your form of terrorism and
slavery. You have now attacked our own safety. You shall go no further."

One peaceful Nation after another has met disaster
because each refused to look the Jihadi danger squarely in the eye until it
actually had them by the throat.

The United
States will not make that fatal mistake.

Do not let us be Hairsplitters Let us not ask ourselves
whether the Americas should begin to defend themselves after the first attack,
or the fifth attack, or the tenth attack, or the twentieth attack.

The time for active defense is now.

This is the time for prevention of attack.

But let this warning be clear. From now on, if Iranian
or Syrian support of insurgents in this war is conducted , the protection of
which is necessary for American defense they do so at their own peril.

I have no illusions about the gravity of this step. I
have not taken it hurriedly or lightly. It is the result of months and months
of constant thought and anxiety and prayer. In the protection your Nation and
mine it cannot be avoided.

The American people have faced other grave crises in
their history -- with American courage, and with American resolution. They will
do no less today.

They know the actualities of the attacks upon us. They
know the necessities of a bold defense against these attacks. They know that
the times call for clear heads and fearless hearts.

And with that inner strength that comes to a free people
conscious of their duty, and conscious of the righteousness of what they do,
they will -- with Divine help and guidance -- stand their ground against this
latest assault upon their democracy, their sovereignty, and their freedom.

When You See a
Rattlesnake Poised to Strike,

You Do Not Wait Until He
Has Struck Before You Crush Him.

Those words
all come from FDR's Sept 11, 1941 fireside chat speech (I had to replace NAZI
with Jihadi and Italian and German with Syrian and Iranian).

Wouldn't
you love to see Sen. Hillary Clinton, Fmr President Carter, Chris Matthews,
Brian Williams, Howard Dean, or Sen. Dick “Dirka Dirka Dirka” Durbin all rant
about how militant and pre-emptive that rhetoric was only to have the following
day's headline be,

"Press
Secretary Tony Snow admits Bush plagiarized his speech from FDR"

ahhhhhhh, historical irony.
I bathe in its soothing warmth and ironic effervescence.

Alamo?Where on earth does he

Alamo?

Where on earth does he get the impression that we have several hundred men surrounded by an army who has played the "Deguello?"  How does he imagine that this force we have ANYWHERE in Iraq will be wiped out?

Hell, the largest force we have had destroyed in Iraq has been a FIRETEAM for gods sake!!!    Any of his GOOD REPORTERS could have told him that before they went on the air if they had the desire to, but then again, his reporters are not interested in reporting the facts.

Chris, like all good liberals, really needs to study military history.... 

I think

American people ought to go to bed terrified that this member of the terrorist propaganda machine is recruiting right in front of our eyes. Bring back the American Constitution, Article III:
Section 3.

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

You're quite right, BD.   P

You're quite right, BD.   Pundits like Matthews love to draw analogies to historical military events --- and mainly negative ones ---  but because of their weak knowledge of history (or their deliberate obscuring of it), they come up with ridiculous comparisons like this recent "Alamo" statement.  Last year during a week of heavy violence in Baghdad, the MSM compared it to the Tet Offensive in '68. 

Of course, they're hoping that if they keep exaggerating the military situation in Iraq long enough, the public will believe that victory is impossible and demand withdrawal.

But Matthews' statement is an insult to our warriors serving in Iraq. 

Come on BD Matthews is a genius

Come on BD, don't you know Chris Matthews is really smart and makes a lot of sense using the Alamo comparison.

Sincerely

General Santa Anna

"There's no basement in the Alamo"

Santa Anna

You got to love a guy who has a full state funeral for his leg.

"HAV3 TH3 BRIDG3S OF INSANITY B33N CROSS3D AND FOR3V3R R3TRACT3D???"  - Meshuggah, "3ntrapm3nt", from Catch Thirty Thr33 (2005)

Pucker up Chrissy, move asi

Pucker up Chrissy, move aside and let the guys handle the rough stuff

Thanks, Brad, I'm now aware of Chris Matthew's war ideas.

Thanks, Brad, I'm now aware of Chris Matthew's war ideas.

Such profundity.

By the way, the Alamo?  Why pick the Alamo?  I like the Troy analagy (just as relevant).  Helen would have committed suicide when faced with this analysis.  I can see the Army now.

First soldier:  "Man, it's been three years of this camping out."

Second soldier:  "Yeah, I mean she's a knockout, but we weren't supposed to have a 'permanent base' here."

Third soldier:  "Mom writes that even the town crier has been whining, Paris is the good guy."

Give me a break.

ACA

...

Acaiguana says:  "Which city is next?"

I’m tired of listening to t

I’m tired of listening to this crap too. But you know the old saying, know thy enemy. And in this case, I’m not talking about militant Islamics.

On the one hand, I think most of us here tend to dismiss the likes of Chris Matthews as a liberal windbag completely out of touch with reality. While all that is true, I think dismissing him out of hand is a dangerous thing to do. He and his kind need to be called on their lies and held accountable.

I understand the supposed difference between commentators and reporters (although these days the line between the two has been so blurred I’m not convinced there is any material difference any more).

But I can assure you, in a country where an absurd amount of the public get their “news” from listening to comedians like Leno and Letterman, people do not realize the difference between commentators and reporters. People listen to these guys and take it as gospel (yes a RELIGIOUS REFERENCE) and as fact.

I expect that many Americans did go to bed afraid last night. Not for any conclusion they came to themselves, but simply because Chris said they should.

Someone posted a reference to what constitutes treason earlier in this thread. If this kind of stuff ain’t treason, I don’t know what the hell is.

After watching 10 minutes of

After watching 10 minutes of " Obi the cry baby" and Matthews, I'm convinced more than ever that these two believe it's their mission in life to save the Republic and bring Bush down. The vitrolic hatred they spewed last night was mind blowing.

I thought  for a moment The Daily Kos had moved from blogs to TV .

The most pathetic part of thi

The most pathetic part of this whole Dem and MSM response has been their idiotic claims we must negotiate.  Negotiate with whom?  Terrorists?  Iran who supplies the terrorists?  If you can't even get the Iranians to back off on reprocessing uranium for bomb making what in blazes makes anyone think they will back off on terrorism?  Sheer Stupidity. Who supplied Hezbollah with rockets and weapons to attack Israel?  That would be Iran.   And this is what Dems called Leadership?  No thanks.

Iran has a vested interest in the failure of Iraq as a Democracy.  Success in Iraq both potilically and economically highlights the failures of the Iranian government's own domestic policies.  Most Iranians are poorer under the Mullahs than when the Shah was running Iran.  That's pathetic. 

Basically what's happening here with the Dems response is a cover up and snookering of the Anti-war crowd.  The Dems want the status quo, buy opposing a surge, they cover up their lying to the Anti-war crowd regarding not pulling out the troops.  They also get to keep the issue alive in order to continue carping, whinning and criticizing, that's the Dems game plan.  There is no "New Direction" like all Dem issues, they require the issues to continue in order to justify their claims on power which they grossly mistake for leadership.  Power and leadership are not the same.

“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius

Matthews

" I'm terrified. Those aggressive males are at it again." Poor Chris Matthews. He should put on one of those flowered dresses he wears at home and go on The Pig Pen ( a.k.a. The View).

NEVER,NEVER trust a liberal

with both olbermann and matth

with both olbermann and matthews commanding 2 of televisions least watched news shows ... they'll say anything to entice any kind of audience ... it doesn't seem to be working though.

hardball and countdown are truly awful shows ...

Good point. So why aren’t t

Good point. So why aren’t the shows canceled?

I’d like to float the idea that they are allowed to continue because they represent the ideals of the leadership of their networks, who are willing to take a loss in an effort to continue to undermine the President and the war.

Jimbo, that missing Village Idiot...

Jimbo, that missing Village Idiot...

Talent is so hard to find these days.  Now that the Fruitcake Lady has passed.

Can't we find a cab driver with more sense?  Oops, they are all from Pakistan, my bad.

How about...

Gracie Burns?

Goodnight, Gracie.

ACA

...

Acaiguana says:  "Which city is next?"

Chrissy Wet Panties

You're right.  Of course that used to be called TREASON and they shot you!  Makes you yearn for the good old days!

maybe zell miller will pay ma

maybe zell miller will pay matthews a visit

"We (the liberal MSM) we

"We (the liberal MSM) were  for troop increases before we were against it."

Keep up the drumbeat of American failure, for your personal self-interest.

The case has been proven again and again.  These people are traitors, just like they were with Vietnam, the Soviet Union, Cuba...they are bold-face traitors.

"He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, and he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere"          -Ali ibn-Abi-Talib, 4th Islamic Caliph

As far as Iran goes, my perce

As far as Iran goes, my perception of the MSM's "position" is that we are just supposed to sit back and allow them to acquire nuclear weapons.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the president of that country promising to wipe Israel off the face of the earth?