On the September 12 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, Michael Savage asserted that “we should bring back Saddam, a Sunni, because he knows how to control the Shia.” Savage added: “You can laugh all you want. He knew how to control them; he knew how to keep these maniacs under control. And he was also a counterbalance to Iran.”

As Media Matters for America has documented, Savage is not the only media personality to endorse Saddam's methods. On the June 19 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly declared that if he were the president of Iraq, he would run the country “just like Saddam [Hussein] ran it,” by establishing curfews and shooting violators “right between the eyes.” On the June 27 edition of his radio program, O'Reilly suggested that "[i]f we wage the war the way Saddam handled Iraq, then we would have already won."

From the September 12 edition of The Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: Well I got news for you, [caller], I'm the first to have said it, but I'm not the last to have said it. I said it a year ago. Maybe we should bring back Saddam, a Sunni, because he knows how to control the Shia.

CALLER: Yeah. Could be. And you got Syria --

SAVAGE: No. You can laugh all you want. He knew how to control them; he knew how to keep these maniacs under control. And he was also a counterbalance to Iran. This is a gigantic mistake. Something is wrong.