"24"

To some extent, Fox’s hit series “24,” now it its fourth season, has been a breath of fresh air.

Unlike Hollywood, which either turns a blind eye to terrorism, or equates it with Christians, or associates it with Muslims, but as sympathetic family men who kiss their wives, hug their kids, and pet their dogs, “24” has been prepared to put a Muslim face on terrorism, and present that face without the ubiquitous liberal facelift.

It has, to be sure, made a few perfunctory concessions to the forces of political correctness, but by and large the show has been ready to call a spade a spade.

And while the Bush administration has painfully defensive about the charge of “torture,” the show itself has taken the common sense position that in a “ticking time bomb” scenario, you extract information by any means necessary.

Last night, however, the show took a hard left turn with a scene that might as well have been scripted by Michael Moore or George Soros. In this scene, the president’s chief of staff admits that he leaked information to the terrorists about the location of the nerve gas, but with the best of intentions by making the separatists think they will use it against the Russians. The nerve gas will never reach Russian soil because detonators will be triggered once the terrorists landed at their home base. This would prove the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Central Asia. It will allow America to increase its military presence in the area and guarantee the flow of oil.

Oh, and that’s not all. An unfortunate, but necessary consequence of this plot was the assassination of ex-president Palmer.

Such are the lengths to which we right-wing ideologues are prepared to go in our nefarious blood-for-oil scheme: delivering nerve gas to a terrorist cell as well as orchestrating the assassination of former president.

Thank you, Fox, for putting things in perspective.