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The kidnapping of Helen of Sparta by Paris of Troy sparked a 10-year clash of fruitless battles between Troy and Mycenaean Greece in 12th century BC. The deadlock ended quickly after the Greek hero Odysseus had a brilliant idea: “Let’s give Troy a gift.”

Pretending to quit the war, the Greek armies rolled a giant wooden horse outside the gates of Troy, then sailed to the island of Tenedos nearby. One unarmed Greek stayed behind to persuade Trojans that the horse was a gift.

It worked.

Disarmed by the gift, Trojans pulled the wooden horse inside the city walls and closed the gates.

Odysseus’ Greek warriors crawled from the hollow belly of the horse while Trojans slept, then opened the gates to the returning Greek armies and sacked Troy from within.

Troy’s demise came in the garb of a gift.

Much like the ancient story from Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey,” America is being tricked by many ill-advised and odd Trojan Horses that leave us stupefied as we watch the country’s load-bearing institutions crumble from within.

Today, liberals, Leftists and the biased media justify all sorts of bad behavior under the cloak of the Constitution. “Freedom of the press," “freedom of speech” and the “right to peaceful protest” are used as Trojan Horses to disarm political opponents while they punch them like crazy below the belt.

Take CNN’s John Acosta at that press briefing last month. He began, not with a question, but a rhetorical challenge then refused to quit talking and hand over the mic. It was shocking!

Fox’s Chris Wallace, son of a legendary tough reporter, said: “I thought [his] behavior was shameful. Jim Acosta, I thought, embarrassed himself today.”

But rather than being embarrassed, CNN rolled out a Trojan Horse.

“This president’s ongoing attacks of the press have gone too far,” CNN wrote. “They are not only dangerous, they are disturbingly un-American. While President Trump has made it clear he does not respect a free press, he has a sworn obligation to protect it. A free press is vital to democracy, and we stand behind Jim Acosta ...”

True, the president is obligated to protect a free press, but he’s not obligated to protect bias, inaccuracies and hysteria. It’s false reporting he hates, not “the free press.” He’s been saying that for decades.

“When people say something false, I attack those people,” Trump said in a 1990 CNN interview. “The news gets away with murder… It’s very tough in terms of libel laws because the media is so protected…they can write virtually anything. But the difference with me – at least they pay some price, and I think more people should have that attitude. I think you’d find more accurate reporting.”

CNN confuses a free press with the business of news which, today, is basically show business. The right to a free press doesn’t belong to the news business, per se; it belongs to the American people. The press holds a sacred trust, similar to officeholders. They are the Fourth Branch of Government – the “Fourth Estate.”

But with virtually no accountability, Americans trust the press to place limits on itself. Some do. When they don’t, we love it when someone stands up to them. Not doing so would be “disturbingly un-American.”

CNN’s “attacks of the free press” argument is a Trojan Horse – big, loud and hollow.

The most deceptive Trojan Horse trots around as compassion. By twisting the meaning of equality, fairness and justice, liberals shame politicians into overspending on social programs, ignoring federal laws, and giving special rights to “victim” groups.

The migrant caravan is the latest victim group.

Carrying the Honduran flag, thousands of migrants stormed the Mexican border headed for America, taunting Trump along the way. They used women and children as human shields, attacked U.S. Border Patrol, and admitted they’re just looking for a better life.

The “caravan” turned out to be a Trojan Horse – unarmed intruders disguised as asylum seekers.

But the rock-throwing didn’t stop CNN’s Chris Cuomo from trying to disarm us with compassion. He went south of the border to a squalid migrant camp filled with wrinkled tents sunken in by recent rains. Unkempt little boys took turns going down a dirty sliding board surrounded by mud and puddles. A little girl, wearing a religious necklace, pulled along a dirty toy wagon carrying a tiny Bible. Mothers stooped in front of mud-soaked tents amid piles of trash and the stench of portable toilets as they watched their kids play in an area back-dropped by the U.S. border.

“Look at how close they are,” Cuomo said, pointing to the border fence. “That’s how close they are to realizing their dream. But more and more, that fence is representing exactly what – you know, to be frank – the president hopes it does: A barrier that says you’re not getting in. That you’re not wanted. That you should go away.”

Using legal immigration to justify illegal immigration, biased media seldom show the awful consequences of unprincipled compassion. Tijuana is buckling under the weight of those consequences.

“In Tijuana, we’re worried,” delegate Genaro Lopez Moreno said recently. “Somebody popped the bubble of their [migrants’) American dream and they’re staying here.”

“Staying here” meant Tijuana is spending $40,000 a day on 6,200 migrants.

“… If these people came here legally,” Moreno said, “there would be no problem. But these guys didn’t cross legally into Mexico. They tore down our border and jumped and started this caravan.”

Like Tijuana and Troy, the gates of America’s time-honored institutions have been breached by an army of “bad hombres” burrowed inside all sorts of Trojan Horses.

Antifa anarchists, extreme “me-too” feminists, ill-willed politicians, Socialists, race hustlers (black and white), climate change cults, left-leaning media, celebrities and educators – all make up regiments of rag-tag fighters who hide inside the language of the Constitution and Compassion to – intended or not – sack America from within.

We’re at war, folks. It’s not a violent war – and it should never be – but we’re at war.

Boiling at the root of all the noise is an ideological war that’s been brewing for decades. It’s a clash of two opposite, irreconcilable wills imposing themselves on America. The winner is not predetermined. The side that loses the will to win, will lose the war – no matter how right the cause.

It’s past time we see America’s Trojan Horses for what they are, and fight like crazy.