Dan Rather, former anchor of the CBS Evening News, appeared on CNN’s Reliable Sources to harshly criticize those in Congress calling for the U.S. to take military action against the terrorist group ISIS.
Speaking to anchor Brian Stelter on Sunday, August 24, Rather proclaimed that he will only listen to those who advocate boots on the ground “if you tell me you are prepared to send your son, your daughter, your grandson, your granddaughter to that war of which you are beating the drums.” [See video below.]
The disgraced former CBS anchor began his rant by declaring that regarding ISIS “the war drums have been beating along the Potomac for some little while, accentuated in recent weeks and now in recent days.” Rather continued by insisting on the need to “do something about ISIS” but slammed those calling for direct military intervention:
My first question to anyone who is on television saying, we have to get tough, we need to put boots on the ground and we need to go to war in one of these places is, I will hear you out if you tell me you are prepared to send your son, your daughter, your grandson, your granddaughter to that war of which you are beating the drums. If you aren't, I have no patience with you, and don't even talk to me.
As the segment continued, Stelter lamented that individuals would dare call for using U.S. resources to destroy ISIS and turned to a familiar liberal talking point, the Iraq War:
It worries me that I hear so many more voices on television that are advocating for action than I do hear voices of people who are trying to push on the brakes, push on the brakes. And it is somewhat reminiscent of 2002 and 2003 in the run-up to what was a, of course, much, much bigger U.S. military action in Iraq than anything that is being contemplated now.
Unsurprisingly Rather, who was fired from CBS for running a fake attack story on President Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard, eagerly agreed with the CNN host to close out the segment:
We have a lot to answer for about what we didn't do and what we did do in the run-up to the war in Iraq, which I think history will judge to be a strategic disaster of historic proportions. We journalists, including this one, we didn't ask the right questions. We didn't ask enough questions. We didn't ask the follow- up questions. We did not challenge power. And I am concerned that, once again, as the war drums begin to beat and get louder and louder, that there will be a herd mentality of saying, well, we have to go to war in Syria, we have to go to war Ukraine.
See relevant transcript below.
CNN
Reliable Sources
August 24, 2014
BRIAN STELTER: Let me ask you about the television and the media coverage of the past few days since the horrible ISIS video was shown to the world of Jim Foley's beheading. What have you heard? What have you sensed? I know you would hear a drumbeat to war if you heard it. So, have you?
RATHER: Well, absolutely. Look, the war drums have been beating along the Potomac for some little while, accentuated in recent weeks and now in recent days. As a citizen -- let me take my journalist hat off for a moment. But, as a citizen, this worries me a great deal, because, as a journalist, you have seen war zones.
I'm not padding my part here, but I have seen war up close, not like combatants do, but the savagery, the brutality of war once we put the nation at war, that all of these people on television, some of whom I have enormous respect for, but it unsettles me to hear them say, listen, we, we, the United States, we have to -- quote -- "do something" in Ukraine, we have to do something in Syria, we have to do something in the waters around China, we have to do something about what is happening in Yemen, we have to do something in Iraq, we have to do something about ISIS, what they are talking about are combat operations.
My first question to anyone who is on television saying, we have to get tough, we need to put boots on the ground and we need to go to war in one of these places is, I will hear you out if you tell me you are prepared to send your son, your daughter, your grandson, your granddaughter to that war of which you are beating the drums. If you aren't, I have no patience with you, and don't even talk to me.
STELTER: It worries me, too, Dan, to be completely honest. It worries me that I hear so many more voices on television that are advocating for action than I do hear voices of people who are trying to push on the brakes, push on the brakes. And it is somewhat reminiscent of 2002 and 2003 in the run-up to what was a, of course, much, much bigger U.S. military action in Iraq than anything that is being contemplated now.
RATHER: Well, there are echoes of what we went through. And those of us in journalism -- and I can include myself in this -- we have a lot to answer for about what we didn't do and what we did do in the run-up to the war in Iraq, which I think history will judge to be a strategic disaster of historic proportions. We journalists, including this one, we didn't ask the right questions.
We didn't ask enough questions. We didn't ask the follow- up questions. We did not challenge power. And I am concerned that, once again, as the war drums begin to beat and get louder and louder, that there will be a herd mentality of saying, well, we have to go to war in Syria, we have to go to war Ukraine. I don't think it is an overstatement to say that we need to be thinking very, very carefully and seriously about this and journalists have the special responsibility to at least ask the right questions.
STELTER: Dan Rather, I'm so grateful we got to talk about this, this morning. Thank you for joining me.
RATHER: Thank you, Brian. Always good to be with you.
