The Metropolitan USO troupe performed on the Intrepid flight deck Sunday at a ceremony welcoming 88 Army reservists back from the Middle East.

An aura of the surreal surrounded the patriotic entertainment, as I couldn’t help but associate performers from USO – it stands for United Service Organizations – with World War II movies such as “Stage Door Canteen” that were made at a time when Hollywood supported our war efforts. Can you imagine Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, and other 1940s stars holding fundraising events to oust Franklin D. Roosevelt or Harry Truman?

Though this city was brutally attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001, and our military is valiantly battling these Islamic jihadists in Iraq and Afghanistan, the mainstream press headquartered in New York City gives little respect to its efforts. I have drawn this analogy before, but – in light of the Newsweek Koran blunder that incited global riots and the increasing Abu Ghraib obsession by the New York Times and CBS News – it bears repeating.

Today’s deluded journalists who sincerely believe they are behaving professionally remind me of the Colonel Nicholson character portrayed by Alec Guinness in “The Bridge on the River Kwai.” Nicholson is so consumed by ego and ambition that he assists the enemy in building a strategic bridge. Only after betraying his fellow POWs’ efforts to sabotage the project and causing the deaths of several of them does he come to his senses and realize the horror of his complicity.

I’d like to think the editors at Newsweek have had a similar epiphany, but, given the magazine’s continued coverage of our “sins,” that is highly unlikely. I suppose it would be a hyperbolic conclusion to blame the global hostility to the Iraqi Freedom campaign on the Fourth Estate. Still, one has to wonder how different things would be today if from the very beginning of the conflict, journalists had only been fair.

No one is suggesting that the Abu Ghraib torture should have been ignored, but why hasn’t there been an equivalent coverage of the beheadings, kidnappings, torture, murders, rapes, mutilations of the Iraqi men, women, and children by the so-called insurgents? Why haven’t the mainstream press and broadcast networks applauded the awesome heroism of the Iraqi people who are allied with the coalition to rid their country of foreign, mostly Saudi, terrorists? Why hasn’t that heroism been contrasted with the cowardice of the hooded thugs who hide their identities while they slaughter the innocent on video? Why the constant harping on missing WMDs as small as a tin can, when everyone knows darn well that finding them is an impossible task?

In England during the early 1940s some members of the British elite condemned the war with Germany as being unnecessary and lamented the deaths of thousands of soldiers. They advocated establishing diplomatic relations with Hitler and even became fifth columnists to undermine their own government. Does anyone today believe that World War II was an unnecessary war? Fortunately, the valiant outnumbered the cowards in Britain, and despite the efforts of a hostile press that same spirit prevails here.

It was evident on the deck of the Intrepid on Sunday.

The redeployment ceremony was opened by Sergeant Louis Licalzi singing “A Soldier’s Heart” in honor of the returning soldiers, whose faces revealed pride at the song’s refrain, “You were ready to die for our sake – that takes a soldier’s heart.”

A representative of the American Legion, Fang Wong, in his welcome speech, warmed the crowd of soldiers’ relatives and friends when he told the returning warriors that if they needed anything, all they had to do was ask. He intimated that they would not be treated as too many returning Vietnam veterans were.

Then the USO troupe braved the cold spring air dressed in light clothing and sang time-honored rousing patriotic songs that would have made many New York journalists gag had any of them even bothered to cover the event. Anything faintly celebratory about our military is liable to arouse scorn in the sophisticated New York press, but I thoroughly enjoyed the troupe’s Broadway caliber rah-rah tribute to America, featuring the music of the Andrews Sisters and their finale, “God Bless the USA.”

To check out their event schedule during Fleet Week or to donate to a great cause, visit www.usotroupenyc.org.

I was standing next to Lieutenant Colonel Richard Wasserman, who returned from Iraq in February. The subject turned to the negative war coverage and he said, “That’s just the New York media. But I can tell you that everyone we meet here in the city treats us great. They see the uniform and they’re so nice.”

Proof again that the mainstream press is completely out of touch with real New Yorkers.