Lucifer

By now the ignominious collapse of a claim made by leftist magazine Newsweek should be well known; Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit is the best place for commentary and observation this morning, while new media sources will carry it this afternoon for mainstream agencies to risk tonight.

Yet for all the justified condemnation, very few participants, left or right, are answering the question of Newsweek's motives for impeding American efforts to expand democracy and liberalism: the motive is political and ideological, and it is to defeat the Western war on terror; perhaps more frighteningly, whether or not it were being led by President Bush as Commander-in-Chief. The failed presidential bid of Massachusetts Senator John Kerry should have convinced all parties in American and Western discourse that the advantage leftist entities and their politics received from the Vietnam era was annulled shortly after elite media dominance came to end. Yet after November 2004, just as in the days following September 2001, the greater left, particularly journalists, continued to agitate. And that disregard has finally caught up with them. We can speculate on the root of a pathology that sets free men against liberalism — whatever it may be, it is hardly intellect. But the practice is obvious: I've referred to it twice in the last week, and promised to write in greater detail. All before, ironically, Newsweek reminded us how dangerous arrogance and contempt can be; leading one to make common cause with the enemy, betraying his keep to spite one of his own. This false story was about detained terrorists moved from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay but the most egregiously fictional media narrative comes from Iraq, so the focus will be there. Such an essay requires scouring through two years of archives and will be a rediscovery of sorts, the left's assault on democratic assertion and liberation as persistent as the terrorist onslaught itself. I believe I've been off my stride lately but promise to make the work worth your wait.

PAGING: Where's maverick journalist Craig Brett when you need him?

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