Bill O'Reilly, David Letterman High Five Over Iraq War (VIDEO)

Bill O'Reilly went on David Letterman's show Thursday and gave audiences the most tame Letterman-O'Reilly exchange to date. O'Reilly has been on Letterman's show in the past and clashed, however Thursday marked a momentous occasion for the two television hosts: a visible display of camaraderie.

O'Reilly's previous appearances on 'Late Night' included Letterman calling him a "goon" in 2009 and telling him that "about 60 percent of what you say is crap" in 2006 . O'Reilly and Letterman discussed a range of topics on Thursday including Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party.

O'Reilly told Letterman he made an "excellent point" after his analysis of Occupy Wall Street. Letterman politely thanked him for paying him the compliment.

Letterman then initiated a celebratory high five with O'Reilly after the latter said that the war in Iraq "should not have happened in hindsight." Letterman and O'Reilly agreed that it turned out Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction which prompted Letterman to leap out of his chair with his hand raised high in the air.

"Up high! Come on, up high....come on, Billy! Come on! Come on!" Letterman taunted O'Reilly, who remained in his chair shaking his head.

After more pleading, Letterman warned, "I'll give you one more chance, Bill."

"I'm not high-fiving you on a war!" O'Reilly said.

"We're feeling good, we're happy to see each other!" Letterman responded.

"We're having a good conversation, sit down." O'Reilly said. Letterman did not look so enthused with this and O'Reilly gave in. He stood up, towered over Letterman, and did the deed.

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Comments

[dennisc443]

12:52 AM on 10/16/2011

Yep, Iraq did not have WMD's... Bull, most had been destroyed, but the thought was that some was still buried in the sand around Bagdad.... I believe they had more, but they were destroyed before discovery.. They had tons of material, from the United States of America, countries in Europe also made billions on weapons of lethality beyond understanding...

[Potoska]

01:05 PM on 10/16/2011

Yeah Dennis, I know is a little late to answer you, you must be already watching some american rugby, that thing you guys call Football. Yes there WMD's just because you say so in your incredible knowledge of what was in Irak, and of course you know more than the people who searched that country from north to south and east to west.
Please tell us more about your profound knowledge of weapons of lethality beyond understanding, and where they were in the map of your deluded mind.

[Arrech]

01:35 PM on 10/15/2011

Each other

[bachmantsk]

12:05 PM on 10/15/2011

Only had time to read the headline, but here's hoping they used protection!

[Big Bill hayward]

11:37 AM on 10/15/2011

Maybe Dave can get the word out that Building 7 collapsed at 5:20 pm . the 99 % think it was destroyed when the Towers fell.

[OneSlackMartian]

02:43 PM on 10/15/2011

The Building 7 Deniers need their own occupation. And crowd into this one.

[Big Bill hayward]

01:35 AM on 10/16/2011

lol

[Todd Abrams]

11:14 AM on 10/15/2011

Yeah, I seen him on plenty of talk shows lately trying to exlain why he's opposing things, and throwing blame as the faux correspondants do. trying to provide a truth that is false in my eyes and many others too! i heard him say he can't afford higher taxes on one show, and then on CBS recently he claimed he didn't know what the message was for OWS movement. He said that 34% of those that are OWS petitioners say that the republicans/tea party are terrorists. He said that is wrong and he doesn't get the message. Well who is obstructing our economy for the reason of getting a republican, or tea party rep into the presidency by causing failure to Mr Obama. They even said this, right Limbaugh! and some others! Mr Mcconnell even explained what his job was! This is totally obstruction and it does fall in line with what 34% has implied. Especially when our economy is hurting because of partison problems, that I think is racially motivated! The terrorists hit a financial structure (World trade bldgs), hoping for the fall of america. Hmmm!!

[BevInSoCal]

03:23 PM on 10/15/2011

He's plugging a book. That's the only thing on his mind.

[walk1111]

02:35 PM on 10/28/2011

It's obvious that you haven't read the book. Even if he is "plugging a book", the proceeds of that book go towards funding the Wounded Warrior program.

[Pdubble]

10:52 AM on 10/15/2011

I always discount all my friends who supported that war. I really don't understand how so many Republican supporters at the time don't admit how wrong they were and now look to people like me for the right answers. It seems the smart thing to do.

[walk1111]

02:39 PM on 10/28/2011

We are all genius in retrospect. If you will remember it was a bi-partisan agreement that passed the resolution to go to war. Also, people like Hillary, John Kerry, Chuck Shumer and lots of other Democrats had long been saying we needed to take out Hussien.

[Pdubble]

07:12 PM on 10/28/2011

No, you're not a genius, and your reply shows it. Barack Obama had to state his opposition to the war at the time it happened during the 2004 Senate campaign. Democrats that voted for the war have since recanted, and even turned to those who didn't support it for leadership. Republicans on the other hand have doubled down on the war rhetoric recently with some calling for the President to lead from the front on Libya, which I can only assume meant invasion. Clearly the lesson was not learned, and in the future I will tell them what they should do in the hopes they wisen up and realize they are dumb.

[drunkarate]

09:35 AM on 10/15/2011

The conservative mindset is so pathetic in these instances. O'Reilly admitting that the Iraq War was a mistake is meaningless unless it is accompanied by a complete reassessment of his own ideological assumptions and poor analysis.

If I look back in hindsight and say, "Boy I came to the wrong conclusion on that one," the next step is to figure out why, root out the cause, and change my point of view on fundamental issues. What false assumptions did I have that led me down the wrong path? What preconceived notions blinded me from seeing the obvious?

Because there were PLENTY of people who saw right through the Iraq war nonsense, Bill O. Millions of people, in fact. If you weren't an intellectual lightweight, you'd swallow your pride, go back and talk to those people and ask them how they knew. Then compare their thought process to your own, figure out why yours was so flawed, and CHANGE your perspective. That's how people GROW, Bill O.

Your first step is to make amends with Michael Moore. Good luck.

[skatscan]

11:13 AM on 10/15/2011

Millions of people were on the streets in 2003 KNEW going to Iraq was based on false information. Even millions more knew that before Bush/Cheney went into propaganda overdrive selling the war to the American people.

[walk1111]

02:55 PM on 10/28/2011

Millions of people were on the streets in 2003? Just where did this happen?

[fatback65]

09:09 AM on 10/15/2011

Why on earth would you swap skin with this blowhard.

[Dayne]

08:31 PM on 10/16/2011

Come on, Letterman isn't that bad. He's a late night talk show host.

[Yank in France]

08:13 AM on 10/15/2011

In a way, I agree with O'Reilly on this one, but for different reasons. I mean, who cares if O'Reilly admits he was wrong in supporting the Iraq War in 2003?

We all know Saddam was a horrible butcher, but the US intervention resulted in the deaths of 100,000s of thousands of people (directly and indirectly) and has caused bitterness toward America that will extend over many lifetimes!

Moreover, the unprovoked invasion has caused deep animosity toward America and Americans throughout the world, including Asia and Latin America!

None of us really know how much money was spent on the Iraq War, but it is clearly over $1 trillion -- money that would have come in handy in dealing with our deep economic crisis today!!

All in all, the spectacle of a man high-fiving one of the most voracious supporters of the Iraq War is pretty damned nauseating!

[bigfated]

11:52 PM on 10/16/2011

Yank in France:
Let's assume we didn't go to war in Iraq and SAVED $1 trillion. The GOP would STILL have pissed it away....scream to kill Social Security and Medicare. Not much would have changed.
It's always nice to think; "imagine how many teachers we could hire for that trillion dollars...."
But....they would rather gut social programs and fight unneeded wars! It's the republican way. An awful lot of smaller countries we still need to dominate and destroy!

[Yank in France]

01:55 AM on 10/17/2011

I agree with your sentiment, but let's not confuse our disdain and frustration with the GOP with hard reality. GW Bush represented a new turn of the screw to the right, and a new Israelization of American foreign policy.

Without Bush and the neocons in power, we would have saved at $1 trillion and perhaps two or three more on wars, although there would surely have been an Afghan intervention in some form or another, regardless of the president.

Then there are the massive tax cuts, which we supported by then Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, the ultimate opportunist of all time.

But don't believe me, check out this economic analysis based on the CBO's own statistics and economic growth figures, which compares the impact of Obama's and Bush's spending policies on the national deficit. Believe me, bigfated, it is an EYE OPENER:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/07/the-chart-that-should-accompany-all-discussions-of-the-debt-ceiling/242484/#.TjRPkpc8sn5.facebook

[walk1111]

02:57 PM on 10/28/2011

Yank in France......If you are truly French, the sight of Normandy should make you forever grateful to America.

[stratego]

08:12 AM on 10/15/2011

Hope Letterman brought some hand sanitizer.

[frant52]

06:28 AM on 10/15/2011

I do so enjoy watching Letterman!

[Oh Johnny]

03:20 PM on 10/15/2011

I love how he never allowed O'Rilley to control the high five moment.

[lentinelia]

05:57 AM on 10/15/2011

Neither of these two millionaire entertainers seem to realize that the war is still going on.
And that we have built the most enormous embassy ever in Baghdad - so we're not planning to go anywhere.
While they high five each other, people continue to be ki!!ed.

[P Markham72]

06:57 AM on 10/15/2011

We have big embassies all over.

[Yank in France]

08:16 AM on 10/15/2011

The US embassy in Baghdad may be the biggest in the planet. What a waste considering that Iran already has more influence than America within the Baghdad government!

A big US embasssy in Baghdad will serve as an enduring testimony to the lion that ... meowed!

[Oh Johnny]

03:22 PM on 10/15/2011

Think how many roads and bridges could have been repaired and employment gained with just what that building cost.

Some day Iran will occupy it.

[Vincent Matthew Halloran]

04:38 AM on 10/15/2011

It's okay (I guess??) to laugh now-- but I have to agree with O'Riley. I doubt the tens of thousands of Iraqis whose bodies, lives, families, homes and neighborhoods were destroyed--as well as the innocent men rotting in USA dungeons-- are amused by David Letterman. What are we doing to change anything, America? Besides (on the Left) congratulating ourselves for being right, and (on the Right) excusing ourselves for being wrong.

[KayDGee]

12:31 PM on 10/15/2011

An admission of poor judgement from a man who was calling those who opposed the Iraq war "traitors" a few short years ago may give those who pay obeisance to O'Reilly something to think about. The process of righting a wrong has to start someplace.

[bigfated]

11:56 PM on 10/16/2011

Could it be "The Lee Atwater Strategy?" Is the bum, O'Reilly terminally ill and he wants to clean up some of his stinking, reeking mess of recent years before he faces that God the nuns told him about? Or is that too much to hope (and pray) for?

[Npn Npn]

03:18 AM on 10/15/2011

These signs of so called "liberalizing" from Fox News provoke anxiety. What are they up to now?

[stratego]

08:11 AM on 10/15/2011

Dirty Murdoch ploy # 1,263.

[Oh Johnny]

03:46 PM on 10/15/2011

Yes they think by taking stepping 2 steps closer to the center until the election, they will seem more mainstream to sway the swing voters.

Exactly what they did in the 2010 election, remember Jobs Jobs? But once elected, the most draconian legislation we've ever seen.

The Right lives on lies and deception. It is kept bolstered by right wing radio and Fox until the next election, that is the job of the right babblers, keep throwing red meat to the lemmings that don't read for them selves, to keep them in the proverbial pen until the next election.

[bigfated]

12:00 AM on 10/17/2011

Npn Npn:
What are they up to now? They hear the footsteps of the "Occupy Wall Street" folks and the collar tightens, the sweat begins, they think about gray walls and steel bars and it's time to revise some recent history.
The most rabid mobs usually start out quiet and reasonable....then? Tar and feathers for the profiteers and war mongers! Time to "soften" the image till things "quiet down!"

[Chuck Beikert]

03:07 AM on 10/15/2011

This video defines the art of being a Conservative.
It is more important to explain your untruths well than to have told the truth to begin with.