Our Friends the Neocons

"Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly are…delaying and obstructing the anti-war protest planned for February 15," The New York Sun editorialized yesterday. What's this—the neoconservative Sun siding with the peace movement? Nope. The full sentence, without ellipses, goes like this: "Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly are doing the people of New York and the people of Iraq a great service by delaying and obstructing the anti-war protest planned for February 15."

The Sun admits that "the protesters probably do have a claim under the right to free speech," but hey—there's other principles at stake: "The longer they delay in granting the protesters a permit, the less time the organizers have to get their turnout organized, and the smaller the crowd is likely to be. And we wouldn't want to overstate the matter, but, at some level, the smaller the crowd, the more likely that President Bush will proceed with his plans to liberate Iraq. And the more likely, in that case, that the Iraqi people will be freed and the citizens of New York will be rescued from the threat of an Iraqi-aided terrorist attack."

And if the march must go forward? In that case, the Sun writes, the cops should "send two witnesses along for each participant, with an eye toward preserving at least the possibility of an eventual treason prosecution."

The Sun scribes: Why do they hate us? They hate us for our freedoms.