Rep. Alan Grayson quoted the oft-repeated observation that "history repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce" to slam U.S. foreign policy – then sheepishly asked whether it was all right to "repeat Karl Marx on the air."
Grayson, a Florida Democrat, on Monday was asked about a report in
The Atlantic that the Saudis could have helped fund the Islamic State.
"Well, history repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce. We had the same origin for Osama bin Laden, didn't we?" Grayson responded, reports
BuzzFeed, which posted audio from the interview.
"By the way, am I allowed to repeat Karl Marx on the air," he asked. "It's OK? On your show it's okay. I want to make sure I'm not offending anyone."
Grayson said the quote illustrates the problems of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
"That was actually Karl Marx" who said that, he told the interviewer, who conceded he didn't recognize the quote.
"In this case, it is a farce because we haven't learned our own lessons. A lot of the grief that we've come to in the Middle East for the past 20 years has been a product of our own making."
He cited the Iraq war as an "ultimate example" of history's possibly repeating itself.
"Four trillion dollars down that rat hole, and now we have people who are anxious for us to do it all over again," he said, referring to
lawmakers who are calling for an increased military response to deal with the militants of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.
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