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‘I Actually Had An AK-47’: Tucker Reflects On Being Shot At In Middle East

Tucker Carlson reflected on being shot at in Iraq. [Screenshot/X/tcnetwork]

[Screenshot/X/tcnetwork]

Julianna Frieman Contributor
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Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson reflected Thursday on being shot at in the Middle East while interviewing comedian Dave Smith.

Carlson told Smith that a “gun battle” broke out at a house he was at while documenting the Iraq War in 2003.

“And one night I’m sitting on the roof on a sat phone trying to talk to my wife back in Washington, taking our dog to the vet. And someone starts shooting at me. And then all these people start shooting at our house and there’s like a gun battle at our house,” Carlson said.  “And I’m like, what?”

Carlson told Smith that he “absolutely” had a gun — an AK 47 — while he was a journalist in the Middle East. He said journalists were “required” to carry a firearm and “get a certification from the state bar” before revealing that his “buddy,” journalist Mike Kelly, was killed while they were in Iraq.

“I actually had an AK-47 already. Not fully automatic, but just a mountain range. I knew how to operate it,” Carlson said. “But you you’re required to carry it. That’s how out of control it was.”

Carlson criticized U.S. “colonialism” in the Middle East because there was no “clearly defined goal.” The Tucker Carlson Network (TCN) founder previously said he supported the Iraq War before he “changed his view” on what he later called a “mistake.” (RELATED: Tucker Carlson Reveals His Hope For Humanity, Urges Against ‘Tampering With The Secret Sauce)

“The bottom line was, we’re not good at colonialism, because we don’t have the self-confidence. We’re not sort of bringing Christianity and civilization. There’s no, like, clearly defined goal for this, and we’re bad at it,” Carlson said. “And the armed forces is not designed to do that. And the effect was super obvious. It was chaos.”

“And the one thing I cannot deal with and I hate, and I think all people hate instinctively, is chaos,” he continued. “People can handle repression. They live in repressive regimes, you know, all through history. They can’t handle chaos. And we brought chaos to Iraq. And I just thought, this is the opposite of what a great power should be doing. This is disgusting. And I saw really, really clearly that it would never get better.”