This is a partial transcript from “Hannity & Colmes,” July 5, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.
ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Meanwhile, anti-war activist and gold star mother Cindy Sheehan spent the 4th of July launching a hunger strike in front of the White House. She also had this to say about U.S. troops serving in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CINDY SHEEHAN, ANTI-WAR ACIVIST: We are here to declare independence from war and occupation and oppression.
And we are standing in solidarity with our brothers and sisters, American coalition, and Iraqis who don’t have enough clean water to drink, who don’t have enough food to eat, who can get killed when they go to the marketplace to shop for their family, who can get raped by our soldiers just living, whose families can be killed.
This war is a war crime, and our soldiers trying to survive are committing war crimes. We need to bring our troops home. We need to do everything we can to save our soldiers and to save the people of Iraq from our George III.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLMES: We now continue with the host of “War Stories,” Oliver North and from Veterans for Peace is a former U.S. diplomat who resigned her post in the State Department over the war in Iraq, Ann Wright.
Ms. Wright, let me go to you first and talk about this issue of using the phrase “war crimes,” as Cindy Sheehan does. Was she out of line to use that phrase?
ANN WRIGHT, FORMER U.S. DIPLOMAT: No, I don’t think so, and it’s tragic that we do have a situation where our military troops have been put in a position where they are committing things on behalf of the Bush administration.
I think going to war in Iraq to start with was a war crime. To invade and occupy a country that had not done anything to the United States was a war crime, a crime of oppression.
COLMES: But are our troops committing war crimes? She spoke with what sounded like a broad brush, and I know that will anger many people.
WRIGHT: Well, she does not mean for it to anger the troops, the good troops that are over there that are trying desperately just to survive, that are trying not to kill innocent civilians.
But, tragically, there are thousands of Iraqis that have been killed. There are hundreds of thousands of homes that have been broken into. There are families that have been disrupted, of course, and she is talking to the good people of the military to say, “Please don’t commit these types of things that we are now hearing about,” that some of our troops have committed.
COLMES: I fear that that context, unfortunately, may be lost by those who just hear the phrase “war crimes.” Colonel North, you know, the Prime Minister Maliki, who we now laud as exhibit A as we have helped create a free and democratic Iraq…
COL. OLIVER NORTH, HOST, “WAR STORIES”: Elected by the Iraqi people.
COLMES: Let me just get out the question — [Prime Minister Maliki] has talked about soldiers raping, has said there needs to be an investigation and used the very phrase Murtha used, “in cold blood.” I don’t hear people attacking him because he is an example of what we claim is what we’ve accomplished in Iraq. Is there a double standard?
NORTH: Well, first of all, what I think everybody needs to understand, to include your other guest, is that all of these incidents have been investigated. Some of them are continuing to be under investigation. And where a court martial is necessary, it will be held.
I mean, the fact is the government of the United States takes these allegations very seriously. The military takes them very seriously. And those who have committed crimes will be held accountable. I don’t know what more you want.
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Ann, let me ask you, Cindy has called the president a lying filthy bastard, fuehrer. She said that George Bush killed her son; George Bush is the biggest terrorist in the world. Now she’s accusing our troops of being rapists and committing war crimes. Those are all statements you agree with?
WRIGHT: I certainly agree that the fact that George Bush has taken us into a war.
HANNITY: I didn’t ask you that — I asked if you agree with those statements.
WRIGHT: I would characterize it a little bit differently. I would say he is lying; he has lied to us. He has been untruthful to the American public. He has gotten us into a war that is something we shouldn’t have gotten into.
HANNITY: I know, we’re not here to debate the war. We’re here to debate the rhetoric of the hard left, people like yourself.
Colonel, here’s the point — I can almost accept it from Cindy Sheehan, but she’s used by the Democratic Party. John Murtha’s put out by the Democratic Party. John Murtha accuses our troops of killing civilians in cold blood. John Kerry, who stabbed Vietnam vets in the back, says that our troops are terrorizing women and children in the dark of night.
WRIGHT: Well, I can guarantee you Cindy Sheehan has not been used by the Democratic Party. Nobody is using her.
HANNITY: Hang on a second. Those were the words by Murtha and Kerry.
WRIGHT: No, no.
NORTH: Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has not repudiated the statements of Kerry, Murtha or these other kinds of comments being made by Ms. Sheehan and others. The reality of it is the Democrat Party is very quickly becoming the capitulationist party in American politics.
COLMES: That’s ridiculous to say that.
WRIGHT: That’s totally ridiculous. No.
HANNITY: That’s right on the money, Colonel, thank you.
NORTH: That may be ridiculous, but it’s a fact.
COLMES: Ann, very quickly. Ten seconds.
WRIGHT: What we need is honesty in this government, and we are not getting honesty. We’re not having the military that’s doing investigations properly and timely. They’re going on for a long period of time. We are being lied to in this country.
COLMES: We thank you both very much.
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