Fallen Star

A week after Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin said on the floor of the Senate that American conduct at Guantanamo reminded him of the conduct of the Nazis, the Soviet Gulag, and Pol Pot, the Minneapolis Star Tribune's editorial writers surprised many with a full-throated defense of Sen. Durbin's remarks. The Star Tribune proclaimed that in the aftermath of Sen. Durbin's slander on the military "[t]he heat got so bad that, late in the week, Durbin apologized if his remarks had been 'misunderstood.' They weren't, and Durbin should not have apologized."

The paper said "Durbin was spot on in his assessment of Guantanamo. That's why he was so roundly attacked. He told the truth."

Columnist Mark Steyn had used a recent offering to educate Sen. Durbin and his fans that the Nazis murdered around 9 million, the Soviet gulag claimed at least 15 million, and Pol Pot's butchers 1.7 million. There have been no deaths at Gitmo. Every death at any American detention facility has been rigorously investigated, and where criminal conduct has occurred, prosecutions have followed. Sen. Durbin spent an entire week attempting to persuade Americans that Abu Ghraib defined American conduct, but the public outside of the feverish left knows better.

The Star Tribune does not. The paper threw in with the hard-core Michael Moore left with its demand on Sen. Durbin, the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Senate: "The senator should stop apologizing and keep up the criticism of the hellhole America's military has created at Guantanamo."

The vile, jihadist propaganda created by our enemies will soon find a place for the "hellhole" comment, as it already has the Durbin speech, and the Star Tribune's editorial board will have joined hands with those intent on blackening the name and deeds of the United States military. This paper is famous for its defense of Kofi Annan and the UN, about whom and it they cannot find a harsh word to say. The Star Tribune is quick to defend the crooked dealings of a corrupt international bureaucracy, and quicker to invent crimes and hellholes committed and constructed by the United States armed services.