O'Reilly: Colbert 'has no bleeping clue how to fight the jihad'

Bill O'Reilly's plan to defeat the Islamic State militants with a 25,000-person mercenary army has been widely mocked since he introduced it last week. But the Fox News host is not backing down.

O'Reilly chastised critics, including Stephen Colbert, for not offering their own solutions to confront global terror.

“Mr. Colbert and others of his ilk have no bleeping clue how to fight the jihad,” O’Reilly said. “They don’t know anything. And when somebody gets beheaded, their reaction is, ‘Oh, that’s bad!’ But by being completely vacant, it doesn’t stop these people from mocking ideas that might have some value, might solve some complex problems.”

The Fox News star pointed to an unscientific poll showing 70 percent of his viewers supported his mercenary army idea.

Last week, O'Reilly outlined his plan on "The O'Reilly Factor."

"Elite fighters who would be well-paid, well-trained to defeat terrorists all over the world," he explained last week. "Here's how it would work: The fighters would be recruited by America and trained in the USA by our Special Forces."

The U.S., O'Reilly said, would be in charge of who makes the cut and how they are deployed and would provide "logistical support."

The English-speaking, Kurdistan-based force would be called "the Anti-Terror Army" and paid for by the coalition of countries the Obama administration is trying to put together.

"That means that all countries that want intelligence and protection from the USA and NATO would have to chip in," he said. "If they don't pay, they get no help."

"This is a terrible idea," O'Reilly's own guest, U.S. Naval War College professor Tom Nichols, said. "It's a terrible idea not just as a practical matter but as a moral matter," Nichols said. "It's a morally corrosive idea to try to outsource our national security. This is something Americans are going to have to do for themselves. This is not something we're going to solve by creating an army of Marvel Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy."

“Oh, come on, please,” Colbert said on Thursday. “Bill’s plan isn’t like the Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy; they’d be an elite team of pros putting their consciences aside to dish out violence for big money. So it’s like the NFL.”

O'Reilly fired back: “In the world of the ideologue, where Colbert lives, solutions don’t really matter. It’s how you feel about things.”