On the December 5 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Bill O'Reilly asserted that “we may have to” “level cities like Tehran, kill hundreds of thousands of people,” which, he explained, the United States has “already done in Germany and Japan.” O'Reilly then argued that such a move would be necessary, for example, "[i]f Iran takes over Iraq and then fosters a revolution inside Saudi Arabia ... and gets control of all the oil and says we're not selling to the USA, we are going to level that country, because you ... need gasoline to live."

From the December 5 edition of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

O'REILLY: The United States will never be conquered by Muslims -- ever. But you don't want it to reach the point where, we have to, example, you know, level cities like Tehran, kill hundreds of thousands of people, which we may have to do -- which we have already done in Germany and Japan. OK? We have already killed hundreds of thousands of people on one day. Now, do we want to do that again? Of course not, but we may have to.

Example: If Iran takes over Iraq and then fosters a revolution inside Saudi Arabia, which Iran wants to do, and overthrows that kingdom and gets control of all the oil and says we're not selling to the USA, we are going to level that country, because you, [caller], need gasoline to live. See? Now that's the biggest example I can give you.