According to John O'Neill, U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan cheered President Bush's re-election -- but it's not being reported:

U.S. troops stationed in Iraq were visibly heartened when they got the news that President Bush had defeated John Kerry in last week's election - but the media are refusing to report their reaction to the folks back home.

That's the word from John O'Neill, whose successful mission to expose Kerry proved critical to Bush's win.

"It hasn't been carried on the networks, but I've talked to children of our friends," O'Neill told ABC radio host Sean Hannity on Monday, in one of his first post-election interviews. "People were cheering in Iraq and Afghanistan - our kids were - when the election results were announced."

O'Neill said one of the chief motivations for the Swiftvets' crusade was a concern for the well-being of GIs on the frontlines. "We were convinced that [Kerry] would be a disaster for our kids in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said.

Of course, videos showing atrocities against Americans (or commited by Saddam Hussein) will be pulled from shelves -- especially if they take issue with Michael Moore:

The 90-minute video, titled Buried in the Sand, shows the gruesome way Saddam Hussein tortured his country. It also prominently features the end of Nicholas Berg's life -- in all, a series of brutally graphic, violent images culminating with the beheading.

The DVD was on a shelf right inside the front door of a Shell station on E. Busch Boulevard. The station's assistant manager, 'Sal,' couldn't explain why the station was selling it, but he admitted the images made him sick.

"What's in there is very disgusting. What you see is disgusting. It's not something to be proud about. I think it shows the U.S. isn't bad about the war. They free a country," he observed in broken English.

What might be most surprising about the video, however, is who was behind it. The movie was actually produced by two Republicans out of California as part of the campaign propaganda, meant to counter films like Fahrenheit 9/11.

"I just wanted to get the truth out there and let people know what the face of our enemy was really like," producer Rob Cartee told Action News.

Shell was unaware the DVD was being sold at a station with their name on it until informed by Action News. The company said it would immediately start an investigation.

A company spokeswoman said that at any station where "merchandise is offered for sale that is morally offensive or distasteful, Shell will demand that the retailer take the appropriate steps to bring the operation into compliance with its contract."

The DVD was on sale for two weeks, and Sal said they sold about half a dozen. But he pledged to pull the remaining copies off the shelf late Monday.

"Right now, I can assure you from this moment, I am going to call whoever supplied it and ask them to pick it up," he said.

I haven't seen the Buried in the Sand DVD, and for the sake of argument I will assume it is political propaganda, as this mainstream review site claims:

For a long time now I’ve been quite vocal in my opposition to Michael Moore and what he does, which is essentially to pass off extremist propaganda as honest political discourse in his books and films. My differing political point of view had nothing to do with it, I’ve argued, but to those who’ve supported what he had to say, I was little more than some right wing fascist trying to suppress dissent.

Now comes the answer to everything Moore has had to say about the war on terror in a film called Buried in the Sand. It’s a movie that defends a lot of the points of view I’ve held dear over the past few years. But just because I agree with what it has to say doesn’t make it any less a disgusting, vile, over-the-top piece of propaganda than Moore’s work. The left has called Michael Moore their answer to Rush Limbaugh; I’m here to vehemently plea on the side of the right that WE don’t need an answer to Michael Moore.

As hosted by Mark Taylor, this is a picture that brings together just about every depiction of brutality ever recorded against the regime of Saddam Hussein and the terrorists who have tried to thwart the emergence of democracy in the Middle East. These are the images that our media have largely withheld from us in favor of daily force-feedings of pictures of Abu Ghraib abuses. Many of them have been talked about, but seldom seen. By stringing them together and punctuating them with “this is why we fight” sentiment, the film aims to win support for the war from those who have withheld it.

But why is pressure being brought to bear to pull it from shelves, and not Fahrenheit 9/11? Why are murderers like Che Guevara being glorified?

From what I can see, Buried in the Sand is not claiming the murderers or beheaders are cool. Nor is it comparing them favorably to early American patriots.

It shows them as the enemy!

We can't have that, can we?