As President Obama wraps up his overseas trip, he must be a bit frustrated. Once again, an American president asked Europe to fight evildoers, and once again, Europe declined. Yes, Obama did get some European money and training personnel for Afghanistan, but no combat troops, which are badly needed to inhibit the Taliban.
So what's Europe's excuse this time? They obviously disliked President Bush, but they seem to love President Obama — that is until he asked them for something.
Right now, only Canada, Great Britain, Australia and Poland are aggressively fighting terrorists in Afghanistan. The USA, of course, is taking the lead as usual. Germany, for example, refuses to let its troops fight. Italy and Spain will fight only if directly threatened. So Europe is content to allow the Taliban a chance to once again brutalize Afghans and give sanctuary to Al Qaeda.
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Take a look at this video. A 17-year-old girl is being beaten by a Taliban fanatic simply because she talked with a boy. These scenes should be shown in every European and American household. Then we'll run the Al Qaeda beheadings. Then we'll run some 9/11 stuff and on and on.
But here's the truth. The world largely doesn't care what the Taliban and Al Qaeda do to innocent people. Nor does it care if Iran develops a nuclear weapon, even if the nukes could then be sold to terrorists.
Surely President Obama understands the weakness in Europe and the double dealing by the Russians and Chinese, who are actually helping Iran. The president may be a very popular guy abroad, but he is getting just what President Bush got: very little help.
The new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu understands completely the situation and has publicly stated: "It is a mark of disgrace for humanity that several decades after the Holocaust the world's response to the calls by Iran's leader to destroy the state of Israel is weak. We cannot afford to take lightly megalomaniac tyrants who threaten to annihilate us."
Netanyahu knows that many in the world simply don't care if Jews get slaughtered again, just as they don't care about that 17-year-old Afghan girl. So Israel may well attack Iran, and then the world will be looking at a conflict that will make the current War on Terror look like a touch football game.
"Talking Points" believes President Obama understands the danger the world is facing. But despite his popularity abroad, he still cannot unite the world against evil. He has loudly trumpeted change in America, but little has changed overseas. I just hope President Obama has a Plan B.
And that's "The Memo."
Pinheads & Patriots
Over the weekend, I saw Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr singing together at Radio City Music Hall. It was a great show and a benefit to raise money for the David Lynch Foundation.
Mr. Lynch is an accomplished director. He did "Twin Peaks," among other things. And his cause is teaching at-risk children to meditate. Many of these kids have horrendous lives, and TM is an excellent coping mechanism for them.
So McCartney, Starr and Lynch, as well as everybody else involved in the concert, are patriots.
On the pinhead front, our pal Mickey Rourke, a great actor, did this over the weekend.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't have to do this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody's going to yell cut.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Now, you can decide whether Mr. Rourke pins himself in the head.
— You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Pinheads & Patriots" 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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