Blood and Politics

Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly. Thank you for watching us tonight.

Blood and politics, that's the subject of this evening's "Talking Points" memo.

There's some good news out of Iraq today.  There's no general uprising, and U.S. forces are pounding the terrorists on a number of fronts.  We'll have two eyewitness reports in just a moment.

"Talking Points" urges the Bush administration to continue hammering the enemy, using full force and determination.  At this point, politics and the hearts-and-minds strategy must step aside and allow the military to deal with bad guys.

Back home, John Kerry has been saying very little about the fighting, and that's smart.  Any criticism of the commander-in-chief right now by Kerry would be inappropriate.  America needs steely resolve, not political skepticism.

About the larger question of running Iraq, Kerry is still locked into the Democrat mantra of the United Nations and Western Europe.

"Talking Points" wonders if the senator is aware of the enormous bribery scandals swirling around the U.N.  Evidence points to the fact that high-ranking U.N. officials, as well as French and Russian officials, were bribed by Saddam, and that's why the brutal dictator got away with illegal behavior for so long.

As for our so-called European allies, they may be more cooperative with Kerry than Bush, but they'll money to help us out in Iraq.  At least they're consistent.

A bit more disturbing on the political front is the continuing bomb throwing by Ted Kennedy.  Kennedy continues to put forth that no cohesive strategy to fight terrorism is in his bag and seems bent on destroying the will of Americans to fight.

Kennedy has never appeared on The Factor, but if he did, I would ask him this: under eight years of a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, al Qaeda rose in power and influence all across the world.  What did you do, Senator?  What did you do to combat that rise?

From the very beginning on 9/11, "Talking Points" has been telling you we're fighting World War III. Iraq is a front on that war. Maybe it's the wrong front, but that's not important now.

What is important for this country is that we defeat the Islamic fascists and defeat them decisively. Our goal to bring democracy to Iraq remains noble. There's no looking back now.  We're in it. We have to win it.

And that's "The Memo."

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

Time now for "The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day"...

You know, I've been getting a few letters from partisans about the Iraq situation, and they're very annoying, to say the least.

I'm withholding his last name, because I don't want to embarrass the guy, but Bill in New Hampshire says this: "Mr. O'Reilly, I have watched you become increasingly opinionated and rude.  Your criticism of President Bush has caused me to stop watching 'The Factor.'"

Well, you're making the right choice, Bill.  A true believer like you will never accept any criticism of your guy, even if the criticism is on the money.  No president is perfect, and when I was hammering President Clinton, I didn't hear from you.

There's no way this network can be fair and balanced or that "The Factor" can look out for you if we give certain politicians or political parties a pass. Unlike most news programs, we hold all the powerful accountable.

And that's not ridiculous at all.  So stop writing me these letters about that.