Fox News Hosts Really Want The US To Attack Iraq

With militants capturing much of Iraq in a violent sweep through the country, calls are increasing on American news networks—and especially on Fox News—for the United States to intervene in the situation.

Everywhere you looked, someone was raising the question of increased American involvement. The calls were most vociferous on Fox News, where, inevitably, the chaos in Iraq was laid directly at President Obama's feet. "Fox & Friends" hammered away at the theme on Thursday, saying that the unfolding violence was a symptom of the withdrawal of American combat forces in 2011. The Obama administration has reportedly rebuffed Iraqi requests for air strike support.

"Give them some drones!" co-host Steve Doocy said, adding, "We could have predicted this the moment President Obama said, 'we're getting out.'"

Later, he transitioned between stories this way: "So we're not helping the Iraqis but we are helping illegals get into this country."

On Wednesday's "Kelly File," Megyn Kelly stated flatly that the violence was happening in "a vacuum left by America's commander-in-chief." Turning to her guest, retired general Jack Keane, she said, "People like you were jumping up and down saying we will lose it all if we don't handle this differently."

Left unmentioned was the fact that President Obama actually tried to stay in Iraq past 2011, but was rebuffed by the Iraqi government, or any suggestion that the instability in the country might have been the result of the American invasion in the first place.

Iraq dominated much of the discussion on other networks.

On Thursday's "Morning Joe," the talk was much more circumspect than on Fox News, with Joe Scarborough saying that the crisis was "the world's problem," but panelist Harold Ford did wonder aloud whether the US should "look to more of a containment policy through drones [or] air strikes."

NBC News correspondent Richard Engel responded that something must be done "immediately," though he didn't explicitly call for the US to get involved.

CNN's "New Day" also raised the specter of American involvement, with host Brooke Baldwin asking guest Spider Marks, an intelligence officer during the height of the war, "at what point should the US step in?" Marks said that the US "had an obligation" to do so. Baldwin noted that many Americans would say they were "over" the war.

On the "Today" show, reporter Jim Miklaszewski had perhaps the most ominous thing to say of all: "There is a real possibility that the US could somehow be drawn back into a war in Iraq."