Israel has begun a series of very precise attacks on Iran. Glenn Beck explains why he doesn’t believe this is the start of another endless war for America. In fact, it’s “unlike anything else we have faced before” thanks to many factors, including the extremist beliefs of the leaders of Iran.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Let me just say this, because I have quite a monologue. I spent about three hours about 1 o'clock in the morning, I started it.
And I will tell you, maybe some anger therapy might have been better. But I took it all out on a monologue. And I will unleash that on to all of the -- on to some people that I actually still refer to as friends.
I just don't know what the hell people are thinking.
But let's -- let's start with why this war is not Iraq. Yet, why it terrifies me.
First of all, I hate war. I used to be, you know, in my youth. A little more war happy. I wasn't going to fight it. And, you know, we should do that happen. We should go.
We have to police the world. No! We don't have to do any of that. We shouldn't do any of that. And I have learned from my first 30, 40 years of my life, that what I was for was absolutely wrong.
The State Department was wrong. Neocons were wrong. All of them, wrong.
For one, it's not only wrong for America. But it's also -- I've seen too many people come home broken. Or not come home at all.
And those that do come home. Nobody seems to care about them.
And I just think it's absolutely abhorrent the way we treat our soldiers. And I've watched our country, send generation after generation off to foreign battles with no clear ending.
Many times, no clear enemy. Tell me who our enemy was, besides Osama Bin Laden, for 20 years.
Who was their enemy?
Well, it's the ideology of -- what is that ideology?
You can't even say it! And then we were told that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. We were told we can't afford to wait. And so we went. And in the end, whether you believe the cause or not. It became another drawn out conflict. Another wound in our national spirit. And far too many American families were touched by it. Once again, the world is holding its breath. Israel yesterday, struck Iran.
Hard, precisely, and quietly.
And before the screaming starts from the headlines, the chambers of the UN, the cable news panels. Let's stop and ask ourselves, a few hard questions, shall we?
First of all, is this America's war. The answer is no.
Should we be there fighting it?
Answer, no. Has Israel asked us to fight their war?
Answer, no.
Is this another Iraq, or is it something entirely different?
Well, let me tell you what makes this moment, unlike anything else we've faced before. First, this was not a call to war. This was not a land invasion.
This -- this is not a campaign to topple a regime and then sit around a culture that doesn't want what we have. Even though Iran, the Iranian people are good people. The Persians are great people! And they do want a life like ours.
But this is targeted. This is surgical. This was preemptive. Not against an idea. Not against a guess.
Against the very real, very stated intentions of a regime run by men, who do not think like we think.
Okay?
They do not want what we want.
We choose life. They literally choose death.
That is as clear as it is. Do you choose life, or do you choose death?
That is a culture of death? So I want to start with the clerics of Iran. The ayatollahs. The supreme leader. The mullahs. The puppet masters of the so-called Islamic republic. And their Sharia law.
I have said this for years and years and years. If you don't understand this, you don't understand Iran.
These are Twelvers. They are followers of a branch of Shiite Islam, that believes not just in the return of the Messianic figure, but also that his return, can or must be, in their words, hastened or accelerated. And the only way to do that is to, quote, using their words, wash the world in blood.
Okay. I think I'm out. That's the first stop of the train. And I'm like, I'm going to get off here please. Let me say this again. The highest religious leader who actually is in charge of the entire country, the one who commands the revolutionary guard, who funds the terror groups by Hezbollah and Hamas. The ones who train children to chant death to America in the streets.
Believe the world must be engulfed in destruction and flames, to usher in the end times.
And they mean that, the same way, we mean that.
And that this is the regime trying to build a nuclear bomb. Now, I have a problem with this.
Because I've been talking about this since 2000, maybe 2002. Oh, they're very close to a bomb. They're very close to a bomb. You know, I stopped listening to John Bolton a long time ago.
It was kind of a cute oldie thing you bring up for a little while. I don't know if you know they're close to the bomb. I don't know if anybody knows they're close to the bomb.
Maybe. I will tell you what Benjamin Netanyahu told me in like 2010. I am meeting with him. And I am like, are they close to the bomb?
I don't know. But when we believe they are truly close to a bomb. It doesn't matter what the world will say. We will go in and do it ourself, if we have to. They cannot have a nuclear weapon.
Okay. So they want a nuclear bomb. Because they want to wash the world in blood.
Now, contrast that with the doctrine of mutually assured destruction, that has kept peace between nuclear superpowers for over half a century. The Soviets, they didn't want to die. Okay?
The Chinese Communist Party, they don't even want to die. Even North Korea, as crazy as that fat guy is. He doesn't want to lose power and his life.
But Iran, they're not afraid of death, because they have all their virgins coming their way. They see martyrdom as a promotion.
They don't want to win a war. They want to ignite the good old end of days.
So ask yourself: What happens when those beliefs collide with the power of a nuclear warhead?
By the way, you should answer this now.
Because we have to answer this when France topples to the same kind of radicals. And when England topples to this same kinds of radicals.
Do we go to get these weapons?
Because you do not want these regimes with these weapons. Now, all that said, I don't want my son going off to war. I don't want America again to play the policeman, or be dragged into another theater of blood and sand. Enough is enough. It doesn't work.
But I also do not want to be the father who has to tell his children, yeah. We saw them coming.
You know, I knew what they believed.
We saw what they were building. But we didn't do anything.
Well, who are we to say?
When the only country most effected by this, did something last night. Surgically.
They are the -- they are the tip of the spear.
They're the ones that are going to get speared first.
Vaporized first. And they're the ones that are like, you know what, I don't care what the rest of you guys say. I'm taking care of this. And they did something surgical.
Holy cow!
I've never seen anything like it!
War is changing!
I have to tell you, what Israel did, matters.
Now, I got on the social media spheres last night.
And I just gave a few opinions, and none of them were bloodthirsty by any -- but, boy. I have to tell you.
I am a warmonger and a Jew lover, I found out, from a lot of people. I have listened to you for years. And I've always known you were a Jew lover.
Holy cow, you haven't listened to me for years then. Okay?
Or you've just been closeted in your hatred. But what Israel did, matters.
Because they didn't wait for the mushroom cloud. They struck. Not to conquer. But to prevent.
Tell me the last time, our country even -- that I can say. I used to say this all the time. Look, we've never been in it for oil or land or anything else.
And I don't know if I believe that anymore. We've done a lot of really bad things. Okay?
A lot of really bad things.
Every country does. But are you telling me, our government. We haven't done a war or two recently. Where we haven't had greedy eyes on the wealth of a nation?
Where is the greedy eyes on Israel?
What did they do? They killed their top scientists. And they killed the leaders of their military.
And then they took out the installation that was making the bomb.
Boy. That's -- wow.
Isn't that horrible?
Let me be really, really clear.
That is really good. But it doesn't mean that it's -- you know, the Middle East isn't going to spiral out of control.
And it doesn't mean our streets in Europe, or in America, are going to get more peaceful.
Okay?
It may spiral out of control.
And I hope not.
But let me quote Thomas Jefferson poorly.
But after he stopped the -- our first foreign war, with the Barbary pirates. Which were Islam. Which were coming on the seas. And taking everybody's ship and their stuff, and then they were enslaving or killing any infidel. Because, you know, you're not a Muslim.
And if you won't submit, I can either kill you or use you as a sex slave or some other kind of slave. And he really didn't understand that. And, you know, everybody is like, we've got to get out of that war!
And so we did. But he said, at the end. You know, I've got to warn you.
It's our first foreign war.
But if we don't understand the ideology that these people have, it will be our last war. As well.
And I think we are going to find. I mean, look what's happening in Europe. Look what's happening in our own streets. With the Palestinian crap.
Where do you think that all comes from?
If you don't think we're going to eventually have a war with Islam, you are mistaken. And I don't want one, because I think it is going to be ugly. But just look at the state of Europe.
Now, I don't want to rush into it. I don't want it. I pray that it never happens.
But not every preemptive strike is in Iraq. Not every enemy is rational. And not every country has people in it, that don't want what we -- they don't think like we think. The Persians think like we think.
And they have spent two decades slow walking this game, smuggling uranium, building enrichment centrifuges. They have funding proxies. They're slaughtering protesters in their own streets.
The difference is now, Israel felt the clock was up. And Israel knew, if they waited, there would be no second chance.
So the world can criticize all they want. They can lecture all they want. They can threaten resolutions. Israel stood alone, and they didn't do it out of vengeance. But because the alternative was unthinkable. Again, let me say it for the third time: I hate war. I do not want us to get involved in another war. I love peace!
But peace does not come from pretending evil does not exist. You know, you're not being asked to rush the gates!
You're being asked, can you just stop holding the gates open, for these people?
And that's exactly what is happening on our streets, in our universities.
In our business. In our government.
We are holding the door open!
Every time somebody else comes across our border.
Every time you say, I don't want to get rid of those people, we have 8,000 people, that we know of!
That are here. That are Islamists. That are also on the terrorist watch list. 8,000 people here.
You remember what 19 did?
If you don't think we're going to be fighting this at some point. Because we can't seem to get serious. Nobody will even say, I can't tell you how much trouble I'm going to be in, for saying, Islamists are evil!
It's evil. I'm sorry.
You're 45, she's nine! Nope! I'm not going to condone that. That's evil.
We cannot present -- we cannot pretend that evil does not exist.
And, you know, what happens is, you know, have to stop it coming. You know, you have to stop it, before it gets a bomb.
And I hope Israel can do that, and I pray for the people of Israel. I pray for the people in Iran. My gosh. They're on our side.
They want these monsters gone. And I was so happy to see how surgical this strike was. I mean, I've never seen anything like it.
