Newsweek strikes again!

 No, not the now-discredited, U.S.-military-flushed-the-Koran-down-the-toilet story. For its Feb. 2, 2005, issue, Newsweek's Asian international edition ran a cover showing a garbage pail with a large American flag inside. The caption read, "The Day America Died." Inside, an article that severely criticizes America, by Princeton Professor Andrew Moravcsik, who, among other things, serves as nonresident senior fellow with the liberal Brookings Institution (a relationship not disclosed).

 That week's Newsweek European international edition ran a cover of President George W. Bush at the presidential podium. The caption read, "America Leads . . . But Is Anyone Following?" Again, Professor Moravcsik's article ran inside.

 What about that week's American edition? No cover showing Bush at the podium or an American flag in a garbage pail. No Professor Moravcsik article. Instead, the American edition ran a cover with Jamie Foxx, Hilary Swank and Leonardo DiCaprio, under the caption, "Oscar Confidential: Hollywood's Hottest Stars Together -- A Candid Talk About Acting, Fear, and Fame." That's right, American readers saw an entirely different cover, with Moravcsik's article AWOL.

 According to Investor's Business Daily, an editor's note accompanied the Asian and European international editions. It read: "Verified facts, not opinions from any viewpoint, are laid out in this issue."

 Verified facts, not opinions?

 Moravcsik writes that, contrary to what Americans think, the American Dream no longer exists: "But the greater danger may be a delusional America, one that believes, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the American Dream lives on, that America remains a model for the world... "

 America's 2004 unemployment rate was 5.5 percent, lower than Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the combined European Union. American GDP grew at 4.4 percent in 2004, versus United Kingdom's 3.2 percent, Japan's 2.9 percent, Spain's 2.6 percent, France's 2.1 percent, Germany's 1.7 percent, Italy's 1.3 percent and the European Union's 2.4 percent. America has the second highest GDP per capita in the world (Luxembourg is first), more than 30 percent higher than both Japan and the United Kingdom.

 Professor Moravcsik doesn't much care for the Bush administration's foreign policy: "The truth is that Americans are living in a dream world. Not only do others not share America's self-regard, they no longer aspire to emulate the country's social and economic achievements. The loss of faith in the American Dream goes beyond this swaggering administration and its war in Iraq." Continued...