Some readers (whom you'd hardly expect to find reading IsraPundit), contended that I erred. One, in particular, got puffed up and placed a comment saying,

Kerry's comment about the timber company was not a lie. It was Bush who was lying. Do some research before you post such accusations!

This would be a serious accusation against anyone, but particularly when hurled against a retired scientist. So even though this issue is utterly marginal, I spent some time in amassing the evidence. Enter William Safire to lighten my burden. The following is a quotation from his recent article (note: by quoting from Safire, I do not imply that I have any trust in the New Jayson Blair Times, or that I feel anything but profound contempt for the said paper):

Kerry also blundered with a weird attack on an $84 item in the Bushes' federal income tax return, supposedly from a timber business. "I own a timber company? That's news to me," said Bush, adding engagingly in what was the most natural moment in the debate, "Need some wood?" It turns out that Kerry relied on an Annenberg Web site that later admitted it had been confused, which left the Democratic candidate out on a hardwood limb. Bush was too much the gentleman to point out, now that their income taxes were in dispute, that Mrs. Heinz Kerry paid only 11 percent in 2003 on her $5 million income, while the Bushes paid 28 percent.

Q.E.D.

But enough merriment for the moment. The issues are much too grave to allow them to be overshadowed by an $84 dollar candidate. What should be underscored is the systematic campaign of mainstream media and their candidate Kerry to erode our resolve to fight terror. They'll try anything to demoralize us, "everything", including lies of omission and commission. Omission: one-sided reporting from Iraq, concealing any achievements; commission: outright distortions about Iraq and Afghanistan.

Here is one of a million recent examples for each of the categories, "omission" and "commission".

An article in the Wall Street Journal lists a long train of good news from Iraq, culled from various pieces posted over the last two weeks. Authored by ARTHUR CHRENKOFF and aptly entitled, "Must It Bleed to Lead", the writer lists achievements under the headings of "society", "economy", reconstruction", "coalition troops", and "diplomacy and security". Samara, of course, is prominently mentioned, as are the preparations for the January elections. The list of achievements is way too long to summarize, so please check out the link given above: it will warm the cockles of one's heart, unless one is a Kerry supporter. Few of the details come from mainstream media; for the truth, you have to go to the outlets that are on our side: "Stars and Stripes", "HEADQUARTERS, UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND", etc.

More egregious yet are the crimes of commission. Here is a typical quotation from the chief enemy organ, the New York Slimes; the article was written today (11 October, 2004), by one, Bob Herbert:

In yesterday's Week in Review section, The Times's Dexter Filkins wrote movingly from Baghdad about the reporters trying to cover the war. There's been a relentless expansion, he said, of areas that reporters dare not venture into because they are too dangerous. Most European reporters have left the country, and there are far fewer Americans than just a few months ago.

Forty-six reporters have been killed and Mr. Filkins himself has been attacked by a mob, shot at and detained by the Mahdi Army.

If Mr. Bush has a plan to clean up the mess in Iraq, he should say so.

Reading this piece after Chrenkoff's article (see above), one can fully appreciate that what the Jayson Blair Times is disseminating amounts not merely to calumny but to outright treason by demoralizing the troops and the civilian population.

I have lived through WW II, and I bristle with rage when I think of how the equivalent of today's New York Slimes would have portrayed the failures we suffered day in and day out from 1939 right into 1945: Dieppe, the Battle of the Bulge, the loss of Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya, Indonesia and the Philippines, the loss of Greece, Norway, France, Holland, Belgium and Yugoslavia; etc., etc., etc. This is precisely the reason why I have broken my silence on the US election and its presentation by the enemy mainstream media. Much more than the US election is at stake: it is our chance to win WW IV and avoid the fate of becoming dhimmis. Let us recognize this one fact clearly: in this war, mainstream media constitute an integral part of the enemy.