Ben Stein--"We're losing"

In a simpler, more innocent, bygone era—that is to say, the pre 9-11 age—I used to think that Ben Stein was just a witty game show host, or a comic foil in some movies way back in the 80s.

Well, his game show may have gone into repeats, but Mr. Stein is proving to be a sharp observer on Mr. Bush’s so-called “war on terror”—what is more accurately called the ongoing Global Islamic Jihad against the Infidels.

Mr. Stein thinks that the Jihad is not faring so well--for the infidels. His latest musings seem to me to be spot-on accurate.

Greeting, fellow Americans. I have some serious news for you about the war against the terrorists, the war we are fighting to protect our liberties and our Constitution against Islamic totalitarianism. We're losing, big time. I don't mean we're losing in Iraq, where our brave men and women are fighting well in difficult conditions and with the home grown doubters at their heels. Nor in Afghanistan, where our men and women in uniform are also fighting brilliantly.

No, we are losing our freedom here at home, and in a particularly nasty way. It has to do with those cartoons mocking Mohammed that were published in a Danish publication and have excited riots and burnings across the Moslem world and fear and terror in Europe.

The problem here is that some students at the University of Illinois' student newspaper thought -- with some reason -- that the cartoons are newsworthy. They published six of them along with a written statement of why the cartoons were offensive. A few Moslem students complained, which surely is their right. The university officials stepped in and the student editors were essentially fired. Yes, because a student publication might cause offense. Imagine that.

That's on top of the fact that despite these cartoons being huge news, not one major paper has reprinted them. Not the fearless Washington Post, not the thorough Wall Street Journal, not any major newspaper of record that I know of. Nor have any of the major networks shown them, as far as I know.

So here's where we are: we have a first amendment guaranteeing freedom of speech and separation of church and state. That means so-called artists can make art of a crucifix soaking in urine and of holy Christian images made of animal dung and no one can stop them. That means bookstores of brick and on-line can sell Mein Kampf and the vilest writings of Hitler's lackeys. These horrible excrescences are protected and the media screams bloody murder if anyone tries to protect the sacred in Christianity and Judaism from the most putrid attacks.

But the media censors itself about the cartoons mocking the prophet of a religion many of whose adherents want to destroy our country and our way of life. We will fight to the death to protect the artists who create Piss Christ, but we'll also fight to the death to protect the feelings of the people who hate us and kill our children. We have surrendered our free expression to people who are at war with us. They kill us in the name of a religion and we bow and scrape to that religion while letting people dump on Christianity and Judaism.

There's a word for this, beyond the words Stockholm Syndrome and the words Political Correctness. The word is cowardice. Or maybe an even shorter word: defeat. Wake up, America. This is serious.