0 also tonight accusations that a michigan state professor is browbeating his students with radical left rhetoric. we will tell you all about that caution, you are about to enter the no spin zone. the factor begins right now. >> bill: hi, i'm bill o'reilly. thanks for watching us tonight. dueling agendas over syria. that is the subject tonight's talking points memo. syria. that talking post bill o'reilly.com. might want to check it out. many americans are confused over the issue because it is a complicated mess. just to sum up, i believe there is year whelming evidence that the syrian tyrant assad did gas including children. i believe if the u.s.a. does does nothing about that that will embolden our enemy and lead to nastier things down the road. that is speculation. there is no doubt that people like putin and the mullahs in iran belie that president obama is weak and so is america in general. now, you don't start military action to prove you are not weak. that's foolish. but, since world war ii. america has been the moral force in the world. even though we have made tactical mistakes that are damaged the nation. the truth is it would be much easier for the country not to get involved with syria. in the short run, that would be a much safer strategy. but, in the long run, it would be dangerous. left unchecked, evil flourishes, if we sit out syria, believe me, we will be facing every pressure down the road most likely with weapons of mass destruction terrorists doing the bidding of iran and other rogue nations. because of that continuing threat. killers like assad have to be confronted. like saddam he is a war criminal. unlike saddam he is in bed with iran and with a number of terrorist groups. so as long as is he in power, the middle east will be unstable. it certainly is true that nobody knows what will happen when assad goes. just like libya and egypt, chaos is likely. but talking points believes that if congress votes to support a limited military strike against syria, americans should rally behind that putting politics aside. if congress says no, however, president obama should not, should not launch an attack because that would create amazing chaos within america. we don't want that. it's not worst worth it. summing up, talking points believes assad did gas civilians that is he is a war criminal that allowing him to go unpunished will cause many more problems for america down the road. and i hope congress sees it that way. that's the memo. now for the top story tonight. let's bring in fox news analyst karl rove who joins us from austin, texas. run it down 10 to 7 vote to approve military action against syria today in the senate foreign relations committee. real quick, the votes yes mccain, flake corker, menendez, boxer, barbara boxer supporting her guy president obama. ben card democrat in maryland. shaheen new hampshire, coons. as liberal as they get supporting action. oh my god. and dick durbin. dick durbin supporting action. who would have thunk it and angus king knows some nos. marco rubio no. chris murphy, jim reesh, bob johnson, rand paul we knew that tom you uudoll how could you process it. >> this was the easiest vote senate relations committee between menendez and corker you had bipartisan effort president's resolution. you touched on tellerrier. the first and most important thing for the president to do is to convince the president and american people that there is a strategic american interest in taking action against saddam hussein. not simply a humanitarian or an international component but there is a strategic u.s. interest. and, you are right. the outcome in syria is either assad wins in which case hezbollah and iran and russia win or assad loses in which case iran, hezbollah, and russialess. if assad, iran, hezbollah, and russia win, then that changes the balance of power in the middle east against us. and if they lose, it advances it in our direction. >> bill: the argument for people and as you know you see the polls. many republicans and conservatives say okay, well, al qaeda operatives will take over the government. look what happened in egypt. worse people than assad. i don't think it could be worse than assad but they do will take over. so, even if we do downgrade assad and he loses the civil war, it's not going to be good for america. therefore, we should stay out of it completely. >> well, that's -- you touched on the second thing the president needs to do which is taking action will result in a better situation for us. look, the free syrian army and the free syrian opposition to it assad was more secular and western in orientation not islamist or jihaddist two years ago. since then, through the lack of action on the part of the united states, the elements of the free syrian army that are best trained and most organized are the al qaeda affiliates. and, but i find it hard to believe that they are dominated by foreign fighters. a lot of people, literally people from new zealand and libya, for example, talk about an odd combination. but the president has got to make the case that american policy and the policy of our allies in the region has got to be to set up a situation where assad goes. there is a better chance that the non-islamist. non-jihadist elements of the free syrian opposition will come to power. look, i find it hard to believe that syrian people are going to accept a terrorist organization that is dominated by foreign fighters as the source of their next government. i think that's unlikely. >> but you basically have in this country war weariness and we are awful understand that who wants another fiasco. and then you have a sip schism deep, deep, deep cynicism, particularly among conservatives that president obama is so inept that he can't do anything, that if you give him the authorization to go attack syria, even if it's short duration and even if it's just from the air, he will screw it up and, you know, it's not going to come out the way we want it to come out. because it's all speculative. the case i'm making and you are making that a weak america emboldens people down the road is a speculative case. i believe it firm live in my heart and that's why i'm behind it speculatively. >> >> that's not speculative. how the will suffer. if they they win. msnbc monthly do you favor military action or providing humanitarian assistance? only 26% chose military action. however, if you said should we have military action response to the use of chemical weapons, it goes to it 42% say yes. 50% say no. if you say okay, well what if we use cruise missiles and air strikes to go ever at units and the infrastructure responsible for the chemical weapons attacks it then goes to 50-44. here is the interesting one. the general principle, the use of chemical weapons is a red line which ought to cause a significant u.s. response including military ction. the general principle 58-35. i take the difference between 58-35 and lesser numbers to say the difference is the credibility gap of the president. the people don't trust him. i have been talking republican members of the house. >> that's the primary beef. >> they don't trust him. this gets to the third issue which is the president mitted to quote a shot across the bough as he said the other day or a pinprick or does he really want to make a difference? there will be greater support if there is a sense the administration understands that they need to pend the arc in the middle east towards our direction. the interesting thing is that we have got allies in the form of turkey, saudi arabia, the golf states, kuwait, jordan, which want us to do that. we also have in syria the absence of some things that made, for example, egypt problematic. there is no muslim brotherhood to step in with a nationwide political organization and more importantly a nationwide social service organization to stand itch and say pick us instead of assad or the more western oriented moderate opposition. we have got a chance here with the right policy to make a difference. >> bill: all right, mr. rogue. thanks as always. we have a brand new bill o'reilly dot come poll question for you. if congress does approve military action against syria, would you support it? yes or no. if congress passes military action against syria yes or no. bill o'reilly.com. next on the rundown military ax ha pass worked in the past. later dennis miller wants to opine about his pal putin. those reports upcoming. hey kevin...still eating chalk for heartburn? yeah... try new alka seltzer fruit chews. they work fast on heartburn and taste awesome. these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. 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