Ayman al-Zawahiri calls all Muslims to fight against Israel.

Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader issued a worldwide call Thursday for Muslims to rise up in a holy war against Israel and join the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza until Islam reigns from "Spain to Iraq."

In a taped message broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, Ayman al-Zawahiri said the terrorist organization would not stand idly by while "these (Israeli) shells burn our brothers.

"All the world is a battlefield open in front of us," said the Egyptian-born al-Zawahiri, second-in-command to Osama bin Laden.

"The war with Israel does not depend on cease-fires ... . It is a Jihad for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq," al-Zawahiri said. "We will attack everywhere." Spain was controlled by Arab Muslims until they were driven from the country at the turn of the 16th century.

Where are the cooler heads? How can we have allowed the world to come to this point? History is filled with circumstances just like this and it is being ignored by the very people whose job it is to keep the world safe.

With the radicals on the Muslim side calling for Jihad to the radicals on our side calling for the destruction of radical Islam, there is no slack remaining for us to negotiate.

I know that we were attacked by a group of radical Muslims, but remember how small a faction that was? Our counry has done everything in its power to add to their number and then to continue to rattle their cage. We have been asking for this fight since 9-11. It is unbelievably careless and short sighted. The means of dealing with extremists is not to become an extremist by killing and raping their civilians! The way to deal with them is to maintain your moral superiority and allow the rest of the world to assist you.

George Bush destroyed our support around the world and now is allowing Israel to start a conflict that will bring the world to the brink of destruction.

How did intelligent people, on both sides of this fence, allow this to get so out of hand?

We cannot sit back anymore. We must make our voices heard. We need to get the troops out of Iraq and bring them home now! We must help to broker a ceasefire and start talking to these Muslim countries as if they are adults and stop treating them like our misbehaving children!

Until that happens we will just continue to slide toward our own destruction.