When O'Reilly Encouraged al Qaeda to Blow Up San Francisco

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Look, Bill O'Reilly can get on my nerves as much as the next guy's, but the current outcry against him in dozens of newspaper editorials is just plain insane and inaccurate. Here from CBS News, though it could be from anywhere:

I was in San Francisco last week, when Fox News commentator-in-chief Bill O'Reilly had one of his tantrums and told would-be terrorists to "go ahead" and blow the city off the map of the United States.

No, O'Reilly never called for the destruction of San Francisco. He was just mad as hell that the citizens of California voted last week in a special election to bar military recruiters from recruiting in public schools, including college campuses.

In other words, O'Reilly finds it funny how San Franciscans want nothing to do with the U.S. military but would expect nothing less than their full services if they were ever attacked. The actually rant on his radio program went like this:

Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead. And if al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.

Nowhere does O'Reilly ask al Qaeda to blow up California, just that if it terrorists do wipe out a good chunk of San Francisco its citizens shouldn't be tapping their feet with arms crossed every second the green trucks aren't rolling down the streets.

And why should they expect military assistance? Too often the anti-war crowd touts they can support the military without supporting the war. To be sure, it can be done, but how can you support the military if you don't support its strength? How can you support the men and women dying in Iraq if you make it impossible to give them relief or support? (And before you e-mail me, a 100% withdrawal of troops isn't going to happen today or tomorrow.)

It's absolutely ludicrous to kick the military out of schools when that is where they go to find the best and brightest to represent the greatest country in the world in uniform. People should stop throwing fits every time O'Reilly says something that can easily be taken out of context when the bigger picture should be examined.

So the military shouldn't be allowed to recruit in high schools or college campuses? Where then, my friends, should they go?