Updated

Al Qaeda speaks: that is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo". Interesting editorial in The Wall Street Journal today laying out Al Qaeda's worldwide world war strategy.

As you may know, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who seems to have taken over from Usama bin Laden, wrote a letter to Abu al-Zarqawi, the Al Qaeda chief in Iraq, laying out strategy.

That letter was found by U.S. forces in Iraq. And you can read it yourself on the web at www.dni.gov. Now the letter spells out Al Qaeda's goal of making Iraq an Islamic state that allows the terrorist group free reign to spread jihad into countries like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, and also to attack Israel.

The letter goes on to say that the USA is a fierce opponent in Iraq, but that the American press will eventually undermine the war, just like Vietnam. Remember, this is Al Qaeda's opinion, not mine.

Now there is no doubt from Zawahiri's words that Al Qaeda (search) is fully engaged in a worldwide attempt to destroy as many infidels as possible and set up Islamic fascist governments in as many countries as possible.

Most Americans, as you may know, no longer support the Iraq war, believing the Bush administration can't win it. And a large part of that belief comes from the relentlessly negative reporting by the U.S. press.

But it is true that the Bush administration mishandled the post-Saddam strategy. And it's also true that if Saddam were still in power, we'd be fighting Al Qaeda someplace else, but we would be fighting them.

That is what all Americans must understand. We have to fight these people. Iraq may not be the best battlefield, but to withdraw now would be a catastrophe for the nation.

"Talking Points" is frustrated that many Americans simply will not acknowledge we're fighting World War III. The hate Bush crowd actually wants the USA to fail in Iraq, wants us to lose the conflict. That's incredible, but it's true.

Al Qaeda understands the divisions inside the USA and is exploiting them, trying to wear us down by giving the press a daily dose of grisly bombings and atrocities to report.

The truth is that Iraq is still chaotic, but certainly not a lost cause. Every time a Howard Dean or a Ted Kennedy or even a Chuck Hagel spin the Iraq situation in a negative way, Al Qaeda hits the jackpot. That's not to say dissent should be stifled, but we the people should demand alternative solutions when criticisms are thrown out there.

Al Qaeda fully understands the concept of World War III because it started the conflict. America does not fully understand the situation. Advantage? Al Qaeda.

And that's "The Memo."

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

Here are the results of our billoreilly.com poll on Aruba. We asked a very simple question: should Americans boycott Aruba in light of the botched Natalee Holloway (search) case?

About 35,000 of you voted; 76 percent favor a boycott and 24 percent oppose. Now obviously, Americans are angry about this and we'll continue to investigate it.

Also going to take a look into this cruise ship industry and see if they're going to still go to Aruba in the numbers that they were in the past.

To not investigate would be ridiculous.