Because 2004 is 20 years too late.
In December, 2003, there was an attempt on the life of Pakistani dictator Musharraf, and our favorite paper of record wrote an article about it.
What we particularly appreciate here at SOS is the use of language in the last three paragraphs:
Residents condemned the assassination attempt, but some criticized General Musharraf for not doing more to stop the American invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Islamic hard-liners and some elements of the Pakistani news media regularly describe the invasions as acts of aggression that killed thousands of innocent civilians, even tens of thousands. Many Pakistanis, who have limited sources of information, accept that description as fact and deplore the United States.
"I don't like him," one man said, referring to General Musharraf. "He's not with the Muslim people."
Notice the brilliant implication that it is somehow counter-factual that thousands — perhaps even tens of thousands — of innocent civilians in the US government's actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Compare with the Christian Science Monitor (a paper which is not quite so talented in the field of doublethink) estimating — in May — that already some 5000 - 10000 civilians been killed. iraqbodycount.net is providing continuously updated numbers.
We at SOS salute David Rohde, author of the article at hand, for his contributions to the growth of Ingsoc!