Over the weekend, I was up in northern Minnesota, the International Falls area — great place. And I talked with a lot of folks up there, many of whom are very concerned about Iraq.
And who can blame them? The chaos there is tragic. Now the USA has made big mistakes. The question is what should we do now? What's best for the country?
The Bush-haters want to leave and blame the president for the debacle. Many on the right want to tough it out, but that will only work if there's a realistic strategy for success. An impending civil war would negate any success in Iraq. Pray that doesn't happen.
What most people don't understand is that Iraq, Iran, Hezbollah and Israel are all tied together. Iran is the main player. That country's now threatening the world. It wants Israel destroyed and has enabled Hezbollah to amass thousands of rockets. It supports Shia terrorism in Iraq and is defying the world over nukes.
Iran is America's most dangerous enemy and is the force behind Islamic-fascism. If the USA and Britain pull out of Iraq, Iran will make that country a sphere of influence. It will dominate the chaotic government and control much of the world's oil flow.
Iran will also train and fund terrorists based inside Iraq -- like Saddam did -- in effect setting up another Taliban situation. A loss for the USA in Iraq would dramatically increase Iran's power to spread terrorism worldwide.
And if Iran manages to get nuclear weapons, all bets are off. Low-level dirty bombs could be produced and handed off to Al Qaeda, Hezbollah or any other terrorist group. The danger to Israel, America and the rest of the world would be through the roof.
Thus, a confrontation between the USA, Britain, Israel versus Iran and its terror acolytes would make Iraq look like a weekend on Cape Cod.
The far left in America and the United Nations simply don't want to acknowledge the menace. They want to negotiate. They want to grant Iran and the terrorists concessions. If history is any judge, that is naive and dangerous and will lead to millions of people dying in the streets.
The Islamic-fascist jihad led by Iran is here and it is not going away.
And that's "The Memo."
The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day
As I mentioned, I was up in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota over the weekend fishing and splashing around Rainy Lake -- a great place. Here I am after a titanic struggle with Moby Dick. Well, maybe little Moby. A walleye who I believe committed suicide by jumping on my hook. How else could a city slicker like me land it?
Fishing guide Bill Dougherty was kind enough not to mock me, especially since a seven-year-old in my boat named Madeline caught 14 fish, including a 26-inch walleye. More details available on billoreilly.com and if you want to see a nice part of the USA, get up there to International Falls. It's not ridiculous at all. He really fought. He was small but tough.
—You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Most Ridiculous Item" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the FOX News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com
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