We have perfect, after the fact knowledge of what happened at Virgina Tech. The students unfortunately didn't enjoy that advantage. They had to figure out as it was happening, and while they were getting shot at.

We know the killer was only armed with two guns and had to stop to reload. It's not clear that the students knew that, or, if they did know that, what if anything they could have done about it. If you're trying to protect yourself, by hiding behind a desk or a wall, it's not so easy to just switch your gears around and jump somebody.

It's so easy to fantasize about what you would do in such a situation. I do it myself. But at least I'm sane enough to understand that fantasy is a long way from reality. It sure doesn't seem like the right wing understands that.

...that so many of the mouth manly men on the Internet never seem to show up in real life?

You'd think by now there would be a half dozen conservative heros who've taken out a few gun men. But I guess I'm not being fair, since they've no doubt all volunteered for duty in Iraq.

Evangeline Lily?

As long as Bush is in office, Democratic electoral prospects are almost certain to prosper. It's the Republicans who might want to get rid of Bush and Cheney.

Of course the whole rotten edifice might blow at some point and collapse of itself. Bush won't survive another terrorist attack, for example, or a loss of many troops in Iraq. I think he would be hard put to survive a recession or another hurricane. So he is on shaky ground. But the Democrats would like to keep him around for a while.

...don't say something is "on hiatus." That sounds like it might come back.

Just link to continous patriotic music. Stirring videos of waving flags would be good as well. Then we'll know whatever it is is dead.

...or maybe things will get worse.

Right now the war strategy is to punt the ball (via the 'surge') until 2008, when Bush hopes the next president will be saddled with the blame for the coming defeat or retreat in Iraq.

However, this ball might only tumble as far as the end of summer. Word is that Senate Republicans want to see results from the surge by Labor Day. And so far there are no signs that anything is improving in Iraq. So what then?

Well, there's always mass hysteria and buffalo stampeding. One way to keep the war going for at least one more year would be to attempt a massive volunteer recruitment effort. If young Republicans and conservatives can be induced to volunteer for the military in large enough numbers, then Congress would not be in any position to cut off funding for the war.

All the rhetoric for such a "Save the War" drive is already in place. Since we're supposedly fighting a war of existence against the Islamofacists who want to come here to kill us all and/or convert us to Islam, of course our brave young men and women on the right will want to step up to the plate and do their duty. Isn't taking personal responsibility what conservatism is all about?

After all, serving in Iraq is far safer than facing down a classroom killer, and all our brave conservatives on the Internet have recently asserted their complete willingness to stand up to any and all classroom killers, no matter what their personal chances of survival in such a situation might be. That is, as long as they are properly armed, of course.

So of course they'll be willing to volunteer in Iraq, where they'll be mightly armed with guns, tanks and armor. "Mr. President," they'll stand up salute, "Just tell us where to go." If they don't step up and volunteer, America will lose, and the Islamofacists and Democrats will have won. More importantly, this president will lose--and if this president loses, then all those soldiers will have died in vain. Surely war supporters can't allow that to happen, can they?

If the war in Iraq is really so vital to our national survival, then war supporters can have no other option except to try something like this. Of course, it's possible they may decide it wasn't so vital after all. In that case, we might just laugh them out of existence. So they might as well volunteer.

...yet it is a great moral advance when the guilty have far more to fear from war than the innocent.

Many more innocent have died in Iraq than the guility.

Noticeable then and noticeable now is how the justification for the invasion of Iraq is somehow connected to the war on terror, but the explicit justification is never actually made. I bet they thought they were being smart when they did this: now they just look stupid.

Also the talk about 'freedom' is just so much empty horseshit. Tyrants don't fear freedom, they fear justice. And justice is for everyone, not just criminals. Justice is fair treatment, and fair treatment is exactly how we haven't been treating the Iraqis. Liberty is nothing without justice.