War and Peace in the Age of Terrorism

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

War and peace in the age of terrorism.  That is the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo.

Former president carter has made it quite clear that he believes the Bush administration has no right to attack Iraq.  A petition by scores of Hollywood people agrees, railing against a, quote, "unprovoked attack," unquote.

But how do you fight a war on terror if you can only respond to a direct attack?  That is the question.

Saddam Hussein, who uses his country to train and fund the terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, captured PLO documents prove that.  And those terrorists kill civilians in Israel and generally keep that vicious war going, while at the same time keeping anti-American hatred going because we support Israel with money and weapons.

So the Bush administration believes that if you remove Saddam, you'll hurt the Middle Eastern terrorists, and if they are damaged, peace talks become possible.  But if you allow Saddam to stay in power, the Middle Eastern situation will never improve because Hamas and Islamic Jihad don't want negotiations, they want to kill all the Jews.

It is ironic that Jimmy Carter, who forged the peace plan that eventually failed in the Middle East, does not understand that.  And it is also ironic that a number of other Jewish entertainers would allow Saddam to hold his power, people like Barbra Streisand, Ed Asner, Helen Hunt.  What must Israel think of them?

Anyway, Talking Points understands that an aggressive war against terror has to be fought on many fronts.  Allowing terrorists first-strike capability, as we saw on 9/11, is simply disastrous.

That being said, if the Bush administration decides to attack Iraq, the president must make a persuasive case that such aggression is vital to winning the war on terror.  Mr. Bush cannot simply start blasting away with little explanation.  That would mean big trouble for the USA, as this country would be vilified the world over and our economy would tank.

Such an action might even make Saddam Hussein into a martyr.  So the antiwar people are serving a purpose, putting public pressure on the administration to clarify its strategy.  But these Hollywood people are generally naive, partisan, and prone to accepting propaganda.  The spin yesterday was that America would be waging a, quote, "unprovoked war." well, tell that to thousands of Israeli families burying their loved ones and to thousands of Palestinians doing the same thing.

Terrorists kill and create situations where compromise is impossible.  Saddam Hussein has done that for decades.

Everybody involved here should get smart.  The Hollywood types should stop oversimplifying, and the Bush people should start explaining.  After all, we're talking life and death here.  The folks need to know the truth.

And that's The Memo .

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

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

Federal judges ruled that the Internet porn company that marketed the sex video featuring Pamela Anderson and her then husband Tommy Lee must pay the couple $741,000.  One problem.  The company is bankrupt, financially as well as morally, which may be ridiculous, but, somehow, I'm not feeling all that sorry for that rather crude couple.

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