O'Reilly Surrogate Talks to Nugent

In case you missed it, Nugent recently went on a rant at one of his concerts in which he brandished an automatic weapon and said that he would like several United States Senators to either "suck on" or "ride my machine gun." On the O'Reilly Factor yesterday, John Kasich was filling in for Bill O'Reilly, and had the opportunity to interview Ted Nugent.

My favorite part of the interview:

KASICH: Well, Ted, I know rock 'n' roll. You know that I know rock 'n' roll. But frankly, I mean, that was, like, such a crude thing.

And just for some perspective, here's a picture of the rockin' former Republican Representative John Kasich:


Rock credentials aside, Nugent made the following ridiculous equivalency argument:

"What do you tell the children of soldiers who have sacrificed their lives when Obama claims that their daddies are raiding innocent civilians over there? Come on, John. Let's get our priorities straight."

What are you talking about, Ted? Obama said this:

"[w]e've got to get the job done there [in Afghanistan] and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there."

I don't know if Nugent is challenging the factual accuracy of this, but if he is then he is dead wrong. Just last month, the Associated Press wrote that:

"Afghan elders said Saturday that 108 civilians were killed this week in a bombing campaign in western Afghanistan, and villagers in the northeast said 25 Afghans died in airstrikes."

Nor was Obama's remark regarding the airstrikes particularly controversial. According to Reuters:

Air strikes by foreign forces in Afghanistan have recently killed more civilians than the Taliban and the U.S.-led operation should cut them back, an Afghan rights group said on Monday.

Instead, NATO and U.S.-led coalition troops battling the Taliban and other insurgents should boost the number of their foot soldiers -- already numbering nearly 50,000, Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission said.

In the latest incident involving civilian fatalities, Afghan officials said on the weekend that 45 civilians were killed in an air strike in the south of the country.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the toll from the pre-dawn raid was much lower.

The rising toll on civilians is proving a major irritant for President Hamid Karzai whose government is under fire for rampant corruption, growing insecurity and lack of economic development.

Civilian deaths caused by foreign forces have sparked protests demanding the expulsion of foreign troops and Karzai's resignation.

"Air operations have killed more civilians than Taliban," Nader Nadery, a commissioner with the rights group told Reuters.

"Certainly, reduction of air operations decreases civilian deaths for it is difficult to distinguish between military and non-military people."

The British have also criticized our reliance on air raids. I really see no point of comparison whatsoever here. These statements need to be challenged before they turn into wild memes run amok. This one seems like it might have already taken hold.

Rather than challenging him on this point, Kasich weakly retreats and then tries to recruit Nugent to gang up on the left, for some reason:

"I guess I'm sensitive about it, Ted, because see, I've been the target of this kind of stuff. Not from the -- well, sometimes from the right, but mostly from the left."

Great job, guy.