During the March 20 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage declared that Rudyard Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden" applied to the situation in Iraq. Kipling's poem, written in 1899, is widely believed to have been written as an endorsement of the U.S. invasion of the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. The poem describes the indigenous, colonized peoples of the world as “half-devil and half-child” and goes on to describe imperialism as a noble, if doomed, venture.

From Kipling's poem:

Take up the White Man's burden --
The savage wars of peace --
Fill full the mouth of Famine,
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
(The end for others sought)
Watch sloth and heathen folly
Bring all your hope to nought.

Savage cited Kipling's poem to justify the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, claiming that Americans must “choose between American imperialism and Muslim imperialism.” He warned that if Muslim imperialism is not defeated, “a thousand years of darkness” would ensue under Muslim rule, adding, “So, if I have to make a choice between American imperialism and Muslim imperialism, I'll tell you which side I'm on.”

From the March 20 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: Tell me if this doesn't apply to the United States in Iraq:

Take up the White Man's burden --
Send forth the best ye breed --
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild --
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

Take up the White Man's burden --
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;

[...]

The alternative to imperialism or colonialism of these fanatics is a thousand years of darkness. The reverse is also true; in other words, it's either our colonialism or Muslim imperialism. I mean, you've got to make a choice here. You know, when you say that “America is a colonialist or imperialist nation,” as the idiots in college are saying -- if you say that in a vacuum, it sounds like we're a bad nation and bad people, but you have to counter it with the fact that you have Muslim expansionism and Islamic imperialism -- in other words, a religious imperialism that is fighting us right now, so you have to decide which side you're on. Do you want to live in a thousand years of Islamic rule? Do you want to live with a sword hanging over your head? Do you want your wife or your girlfriend or your daughter to walk around in a black costume with her face covered? Is that what you want? Do you clitorectomies performed in hospitals because they don't want a woman to have any pleasure? Do you want every other religion outlawed? Do you want the churches and the synagogues closed or blown up? Because that's what you're arguing for if you are saying we are an imperialist nation. So, if I have to make a choice between American imperialism and Muslim imperialism, I'll tell you which side I'm on.