Tucker Carlson compares women serving in the military to piles of human feces
Carlson: “For sending women to go fight our wars … that’s not a liberation movement. That’s a kind of slavery, and it’s totally wrong”
Published
Citation From the September 4, 2024, edition of The Charlie Kirk Show, streamed on Rumble
CHARLIE KIRK (HOST): You mentioned the Iraq War and you -- you famously came out -- you actually went to Iraq and saw it for yourself.
TUCKER CARLSON (GUEST): Yes.
KIRK: And I might be misremembering this, but there was, like, some general that told you a story of a mom who died or something? Is that correct?
CARLSON: Yeah. It was all so disgusting.
KIRK: It was awful. And then -- that was the beginning of kind of your eyes opening.
CARLSON: Yeah. I mean, like, look, I'm not an intellectual or particularly wise person, but I try to operate on the level of animal instinct to the extent that I can because I think it's probably a clearer guide to right and wrong than most. And, I remember just having a gut level revulsion as this -- he may have been a full colonel, actually. But anyway, he was an officer and, I think the commanding officer at the time, where I was. But I remember feeling this revulsion as he told me about this woman, this mother, who'd had her legs blown off and then died, that day in -- outside Baghdad.
And he was saying that this was just such a beautiful sacrifice for freedom or for America or something. And I just couldn't get --
KIRK: And her husband was with her.
CARLSON: And her husband was there. He was in country as well. And I remember thinking, "Wait, wait a second." Are we allowed to send -- first of all, what's a woman doing getting her legs blown off? Second, are we allowed to send a husband and a wife? And where are the kids?
KIRK: One hundred percent.
CARLSON: And I had 3 kids at the time --
KIRK: You shouldn't be allowed, period. You can't take put a whole family into a funeral home.
CARLSON: It's totally immoral. And then I thought, "Wait a second, I thought we had a military and a police force -- for that matter -- in order to protect our women and children." That was the whole point of it. I mean, that's why we have a military is to keep foreigners from hurting our women and children. That's why we send men to die for their women, our women whom we revere and respect, and to the extent we're willing to die for them.
And so, for sending women to go fight our wars, that -- first of all, that's not, you know, that's not a liberation movement. That's a kind of slavery, and it's totally wrong.
And so I said something like that to him, and he looked at me like I was a freak. And -- and I was just -- I was just so full, I didn't -- this was said at dinner, so I didn't really have time to think it through.
I still haven't fully thought it through, but I just remember thinking, that's disgusting. It's like walking by a pile of human feces on the sidewalk. You can explain it away and, well, "It's real. There are no restrooms here." It's like, no. They're on the sidewalk. Like, I'm against that. It's just disgusting, and I don't need to explain it, actually. That's how I felt about that.
And, I remember just feeling sick to my stomach, and this guy's reaction to me was like, "Oh, I thought you were on our side. Like, I hate you." And I felt like looking at him, I was like, "I don't know. I know you have this, you know, this whole uniform on and all these insignia that I was raised to respect, and I do respect. I respect your service, but I think you're disgusting. And I think what you just said is evil."
And that, wow, it set off this chain reaction inside of me. I didn't expect any of this at all. And I've never kind of gotten over it, but it's informed how I feel about a lot of things.