Some analysts see the price of the Iraq War as eclipsing that of the Vietnam War. If we pull out, as I expect that we will, then I think it will.

While an overwhelming majority of Democrats and a simple majority of Independents are opposed to the Iraq War, the GOP base is still in favor of fighting it out to victory. This complicates things for those Republicans trying to win elections. Senator Chuck Hagel is one of the most prominent Republicans to oppose the war, and he explains to Bob Novak why he thinks things are still going badly.

Is Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki a help or a hindrance in achieving stability in Iraq? This article suggests the latter.

This is how to defeat insurgents, but our guys are not allowed to do it.

Al Gore's people are assembling a potential campaign team. I think he would be a formidable candidate were he to enter the race.

Michael Chertoff rebuts Zbig.

I will be away on vacation this week, so no blogging until next Saturday.

The family of the Virginia Tech gunman speaks out, and they feel "helpless, hopeless, lost". They deserve our sympathy, too.

Cho was ineligible under Federal law to purchase the firearms he used in the massacre. So many of us have said, time and time again, that we do not need MORE gun control laws, but we do need BETTER ENFORCEMENT of the laws we have.

A European living in America tries to give the anti-Americans who read his paper a different perspective on our great country. Scroll down to the comments to see how he fared.

Perhaps the Europeans would like us more if we followed the advice of the Vermont State Senate.

Max Boot has toured Iraq and he has this lengthy piece on what he found. In sum, things are improving, but there is a long way to go. Unfortunately, patience is not an American virtue.

A psychiatrist tells ABC News that the release of the Cho video by NBC News is "a social catastrophe". He is correct.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) say the Iraq War "is lost". He is incorrect (but his view probably reflects a majority opinion in Washington, and the country at large).

Byron York says the Attorney General had a bad day before the Senate yesterday. He is correct (and the performance, based on what I have read about it so far, may be the straw that breaks the camel's back, as far as his continued tenure is concerned).

E.J. Dionne says we need more "pragmatic" gun control laws. He is incorrect. James Q. Wilson explains why.

Ultra-nationalist fervor hits Europe.

Baby boomers less healthy than prior generations.

Governor Lynch will sign civil union bill here in New Hampshire.

According to The Nation, impeachment fever is on the rise at the Democratic grass roots. In the words of Inspector "Dirty Harry" Callahan, "Go ahead. Make my day".

Hugh Hewitt blasts NBC News for their decision to air the killer's video last night. I hope more people take them to task. Not only did they give a homicidal maniac what he wanted, they glorified him in a way that will resonate with all the other angry, alienated, and potentially homicidal young men out there watching. As I wrote in my first post on this issue, rather than talk about gun control or campus security, we need to talk about mental health and media responsibility.

David Broder writes about media responsibility (concerning Imus and the Duke rape case).

The New York Times has two articles about the mental health (or lack thereof) aspects of this story. One specifically about the killer, the other about the law. A university president has some thoughts on the matter in this Washington Post op-ed.

If we are really serious about trying to discourage these kinds of mass shootings, those of us in the mass media need to re-examine the way we cover these incidents. We need to recognize that these shooters are looking for a big stage. These are people who are isolated (by their own volition), and who feel that no one listens to them. They feel worthless. What better way to be heard than to go for a mass shooting record and have your last manifesto (in today's media, a complete audio-video presentation) published and broadcast for the whole world to see? Thus, step one in dealing with this issue is the easiest. EXERCISE EDITORIAL JUDGEMENT!!!

That, of course, supposes my colleagues remember what that means.

James Alan Fox has this column about the media coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings. The obsession with the attainment of a new record is part of the reason why these shootings have become more common (although, in the greater scheme of things, they are still rare). Angry men teetering on the brink of madness are now provided encouragement for their actions by watching the acclaim being showered on others who act out their anger through mass murder. It can't be a good thing.

Glenn Reynolds points out, in this column in the NY Daily News, that if some students or faculty members at Virginia Tech had been armed (university policy currently prohibits carrying firearms on campus) they might have stopped the shooter before he did so much damage. Reynolds, the creator of the Instapundit blog, is himself a law professor who faces the same restrictions on his campus.

In the wake of the incident the issue of gun control, of course, has come back on the radar.

David Frum makes an important point. No matter what we do, we cannot escape the Grim Reaper.

We are learning more about the shooter. Apparently, many people on campus saw signs of a deeply disturbed young man but couldn't do much about it.

There are other things going on, of course. David Ignatius writes about the trouble that is brewing in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Last night I watched a program on PBS called "America at the Crossroads". It featured Iraq War proponent Richard Perle as he travelled the globe debating war opponents, and trips to Iraq and Afghanistan. I thought it was refreshing to see another point of view on PBS. Apparently, that was the whole idea behind the series, according to this article in the Weekly Standard, that describes the dispute between noted conservative Frank Gaffney and PBS about a show he is producing as part of the series. It seems Gaffney wants to feature the struggle facing moderate Muslims as they battle the Islamists, but he is tussling with the show executives about the final cut. Gaffney believes it is a manifestation of the liberal bias at PBS but, as a long-time media professional myself, I believe it could very well be grounded in technical differences, which seems to be the case if you believe the Weekly Standard account. I hope Gaffney and the PBS folks get their differences straightened out, as it seems to me the documentary could be an important addition to our national conversation about the issue.

According to the Washington Post, the Virginia Tech gunman was a student who lived on-campus. The Post also has the whole story about yesterday's terrible events here.

Update: After a press conference, we now know the identity of the gunman, who left behind a "disturbing note" in his dorm room after he shot two people in another dorm, but before he began the deadlier spree.

Gerard Baker offers a perspective on the shooting from his European vantage point. He tries to explain to his European readers America's unwillingness to accept the kind of restrictive gun control laws that are routine in his part of the world.

A Virginia Tech professor offers her thoughts in this op-ed in the New York Times.

In the New York Sun, a glimpse of evil and some thoughts on suicide shooters.

Professor James Alan Fox has this op-ed in the Los Angeles Times about mass shootings. He runs down the history of these shootings, which were very uncommon before Charles Whitman climbed the tower at the University of Texas with his rifles back in 1966.

Here are my thoughts. Professor Fox correctly points out that prior to 1966 these mass shootings did happen every now and then (a WWII veteran named Unruh went on a shooting spree in Camden, NJ back in 1949, for instance), but they now seem to happen every few months. Therefore, the way to analyze the situation is to ask, what about American society is different today (which is what Fox does in his article)? I will do the same thought experiment.

First, as Fox points out, our personal weapons are far more lethal than those in general use prior to 1960. At that time most Americans who owned guns owned a rifle or a shotgun, or maybe a revolver. Not very many folks owned semi-automatic weapons, and those that were out there were not nearly as efficient, easy to shoot, or accurate as the weapons available today.

Second, we are a much more prosperous nation generally. More people have more money and, thus, more ability to buy more and better weapons. So, taking one and two, more firepower more readily available to anyone who wants it.

Third, prior to the advent of television, anyone who wanted to die spectacularly while shooting all of his enemies, real or imagined, could only expect the very limited audience of just those around him, witnesses, victims, the cops and, maybe, a few newspaper or radio reporters. Today, the person who wants to make a spectacular exit can do so on the world stage, with millions of viewers on cable and satellite news around the world.

Fourth, the alienated and angry person of today now has numerous examples of people who came before him and sated their anger by engaging in a mass shooting. Prior to the advent of mass media coverage of such incidents, it may not even have come to mind as an option for those people frustrated and angered by the vicissitudes of life. Today, after Whitman and Columbine and, now, Virginia Tech, it is an image that lives in the minds of all the frustrated and angry men (and, yes, they are almost always men) out there. They need only begin their journey to an infamous suicide by gathering the necessary firepower and making a plan, however rudimentary.

So, in conclusion, I expect this shooting will not be the last. I expect the debate will, once again, center on gun control and school security, rather than mental health and media coverage. Much will be said, and little of substance will be done.

A critic of the Iraq War strategy (or strategies) will now review the Pentagon office that has been trying, mostly without success, to deal with the IED problem.

A medical professional stresses, based on personal experience, why wearing seat belts saves lives. I have been in two accidents, one a spin out, the other a glancing blow off a guard rail, and both times I could feel my seat belt holding me in place. I never drive, or ride as a passenger, without wearing one. It's too bad Governor Corzine never learned that lesson.

Another New York Times article about the Iraq War that leaves the reader convinced there is no way we can win.

A former General writes an op-ed explaining why he declined to serve as the "War Czar".

Bob Novak meets with a Hamas representative who, he writes, extended an olive branch.

Moqtada al Sadr has withdrawn his party's representatives from the Iraqi legislature.

Victor Davis Hanson has a dream about the West.

Derrick Jackson has a good idea, after Imus, let's fire the hip-hop offenders, too.

Michael Yon has an excellent post about his experiences with British troops in Iraq.

New Jersey's governor faces severe hurdles in his recovery from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. He should have worn his seat belt.

The Marines are counting on the V-22 Osprey, but skepticism abounds.

Caroline Glick believes it will be a long road to victory in the war that is defining our times.

The Sunni insurgency in Iraq is splintering. I'm not sure if that is good news or bad news.

Is the T-Rex the ancestor of today's modern chicken? When we are, in our course, destroyed by the forces of nature, as T-Rex was, what humble creature will we evolve into?

Governor Corzine of New Jersey is recovering from injuries sustained in a car crash.

Don Imus loses his radio show. I expect he will return to the air soon, probably on satellite radio.

Could the Turks invade Iraqi Kurdistan? Their top army leader says it is possible.

Gerard Baker says the neo-cons have been routed, but their ideas remain.

Charles Krauthammer says the surge is succeeding. Frederick Kagan agrees, arguing that Senator Biden is getting it wrong when he says it is not.

Justice is finally done. Those Duke lacrosse players are off the hook. If we really wanted to serve justice, though, we would see that DA and the accuser receive some punishment (especially the DA).

West Point graduates are leaving the Army at a higher rate than in the past. I guess three or four deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan will do that to you. It's just another example of the true crime of the Bush Administration, which is their insistence on fighting a war with only a small percentage of Americans participating. Lawrence Korb also writes about the readiness crisis facing the Army.

Russia is making threatening noises about a U.S. missile defense system for Eastern Europe.

Heavy fighting in a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad yesterday.

His employers might be able to resist calls for his termination by the likes of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, but Don Imus is in real trouble now, because they will not be able to resist these people. Michael Meyers says, let them talk.

Syria is not enough. Pelosi and Lantos would like to go to Iran.

Robert J. Samuelson slams the Baby Boomers. We (both Samuelson and myself are Boomers, he is at the front end and I am at the back) deserve it.

Iran's President asserts his people have started large scale uranium enrichment, although international experts are skeptical about the claim. Whether true or not, it gives the Iranians some leeway either to declare victory and return to the negotiating table, or as a threat.

Those British hostages are now being told that they cannot sell their stories. Simon Jenkins, who advocates negotiations with Iran, says it was lunacy to let them in the first place. John O'Sullivan says the story has put the British people on an emotional roller coaster.

Don Imus is suspended for racially insensitive remarks. Gwen Ifill points out that it is not the first time. Imus, of course, is just one of many radio hosts who have made a living saying outrageous things (Stern, in my opinion, is far worse in that regard). Those of us who believe in maintaining a certain level of courtesy (which precludes the use of offensive or insulting language as a matter of course) when we are on the air are, it seems, a dying breed. This is because of one simple fact. Being outrageous gets one noticed, especially if your outrageous speech is funny and creative. This is what has made men like Imus and Stern so much money over the years. They attract an audience. So, what of the suspension? One word. Hypocrisy.

Moqtada al Sadr gets a crowd to gather in Najaf to burn American flags and shout "Death to America". After our withdrawal from Iraq, some of us are going to wonder whether we gained anything by replacing Saddam Hussein with Moqtada al Sadr.

Michael Barone points out the intellectual basis for Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria (which is that the Liberals believe George W. Bush is the problem, not Al Qaeda, or President Assad, or the Ayatollahs, etc.).

David Broder says it is time for the President and the Congressional Democrats to reach a bargain on Iraq policy.

The New York Times says the "surge" in Iraq is not working.

John McCain says it is working, but the MSM isn't reporting it that way (see above).

Andrew Bacevich says the war is already lost, so Presidential candidates shouldn't be campaigning on their plan for Iraq, but for other things.

Moqtada al Sadr is calling on his militia to resist the Americans. His masters in Tehran no doubt believe that by ratcheting up the pressure in Iraq they may be able to fend off a potential attack against their nuclear program. Certainly, it does not seem smart of him to send his people up against the Americans in a stand up fight, during which they will be decimated. Rather, for al Sadr personally, it seems to me smarter to continue to lay low and wait for the day that the Americans leave, at which time he can make his bid to take over the country. Which is why I think he is doing Tehran's bidding. Meanwhile, the Iranian President is set to announce some news on his nuclear program today.

Bob Novak thinks Jimmy Carter was right to compare the plight of the Palestinians with Blacks under South Africa's old apartheid system.

An outcry in Britain as those former hostages are allowed to sell their stories.

One scientist at MIT says the global warming doomsayers should take a breath.

Former NH Congressman Charlie Bass has this op-ed piece in the Boston Globe this morning about how the GOP can come back to power. In essence, he argues that middle-of-the-road Republicans and independents have been turned off by radical policies and by incompetent management and thus they, quite rationally, fired the GOP last November. While I think that is part of it, I think that the most powerful motive last November was the Iraq War and the highly unpopular Bush Administration. Since people couldn't vote the President out of office, or vote directly to end the war, they did the next best thing, which was to vote against Republicans across the board. If I am right, then Charlie's prescriptions won't do much good in the next election.

We are now getting some details on how the Iranians really treated those British sailors and marines, and it isn't pretty. Still, many soldiers have been treated far worse, and for a far longer period, and still refused to engage in propaganda, so I'm not sure this will rehabilitate their image too much, at least for some of us.

Here is an example of one British columnist who still isn't happy about how they behaved. Ralph Peters has even stronger words for them, calling them cowards. I wouldn't go that far, not knowing how they have been trained to behave (or even if they have been trained) under those kinds of circumstances.

Caroline Glick pulls together the hostage story and the Pelosi visit to Syria in this article in which she asserts that the Iranians, Syrians and their Hamas and Hezbullah allies are preparing for war against the U.S. and Israel this Summer.

Kathleen Parker says that while President Ahmadinejad is a lying, Jew hating, holocaust denying thug, he is right about one thing.

This bit of reporting, about a Pakistani insider's intelligence briefing of American officials, by Arnaud de Bourchgrave, is really scary.

Joseph Kearns Goodwin (who, I believe, is the son of historian Doris Kearns Goodwin) writes this must-read piece in today's Boston Globe.

AMERICA is not at war. To be sure, there are fierce battles in Afghanistan and Iraq where American soldiers are dying day after day. Yet, while our troops and their families have seen their lives altered in fundamental ways, the average American has been asked to sacrifice almost nothing. We read the papers, watch the news, worry about the disintegrating situation, then, except for the inconvenience at the airports, go about our daily lives in much the same manner as we did in the first summer of the 21st century.

A critical conflict, characterized by the Bush administration as the most important in generations, is being waged by a tiny fraction of our population -- the men and women in our armed forces, plus a small number of civilian agencies, together totaling less than 1 percent of our citizenry.

Amen, brother. And why is this the case?

After 9/11, I enlisted in the Army, having graduated from Harvard College the previous June. In the wake of that terrible day, I felt called upon to protect our nation and way of life. During my four years of duty, including a year of combat in Iraq, I met others who had made the same decision. I agree with Donald Rumsfeld, the former secretary of defense, that you must "go to war with the army you have," but I cannot understand why a greater effort was not made to enlarge that army. Had an effort been made to recruit more volunteers in the days and months after 9/11, I am confident that tens of thousands would have answered the call and that our Army today would not be stretched so thin. That call never came.

That call never came. This is why George W, Bush will be seen by history like another Texan who became President, Lyndon Johnson, as a monumental failure. When confronted by the horror of 9/11, George W. Bush had the option of responding to it as a criminal matter, or as an act of war. He chose (I think correctly) to treat it as an act of war and then, in an almost criminal fashion, failed to rouse the country to a war footing. He failed to call upon Congress to declare war against Al Qaeda, and then the Taliban when they refused to turn over Osama bin Laden. He failed to call upon Congress to expand the military, and then call for volunteers (or re-instate the draft, whichever course the Pentagon's military experts thought best to achieve the desired goals). He failed to call upon the American people's resolve to change their energy consumption habits to move toward weening the U.S. off foreign oil. Even if you set aside the politically disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq (and, I would argue, it wouldn't have been as politically disastrous if the nation had already been mobilized for war against the Islamist fanatics and, by extension, their potential patrons and supporters among the dictators and mullahs who rule much of the Middle East), the failure to mobilize the country for war has put us on the brink of defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan, not militarily, but politically which, in the end, is a distinction without a difference.

Here is the latest report from Iraq, courtesy of the Weekly Standard. There is good news within, including the fact that the Sunni tribes of Anbar Province have turned against Al Qaeda. Unfortunately, it won't make a difference politically here in America.

Amir Taheri says the dictators in the Middle East hate America, but love Nancy.

This column in the NY Sun is also about Nancy's trip, as well as the British hostages, who face questions about their behavior by some of the folks back home. Walid Phares thinks the release of the hostages was done so quickly because the PR guys advising the Iranian regime realized that they were not achieving their goals. Phares thinks the original plan was to hold them until Christmas. Geoffrey Wheatcroft thinks the Prime Minister botched the job. Charles Krauthammer thinks the whole sorry mess stands as a humiliation for Britain, and for Europe.

Those British sailors and marines are free, with their new suits and goody bags, courtesy of their friends in Iran. What a humiliating spectacle. This is a resounding victory for Iran's hardliners. In an area of the world where strength is respected and honor is still considered important, the Iranians have shown the British to be weak, unwilling or unable to defend their own servicemen, and willing to endure humiliation and debasement to keep their people safe. The Royal Navy failed miserably in preventing their initial capture, and the sailors and marines behaved reprehensibly during their captivity. It is not that they needed to go the John McCain route (who routinely cursed and spat at his Vietnamese captors), but simply that they could have maintained a dignified silence by refusing to give anything other than name, rank and service number. If I were a resident of any Middle Eastern nation, Sunni or Shia, Arab or Persian, Turkman or Kurd, I would certainly, watching it all unfold on Al Jazeera, take a great deal of satisfaction at watching the once haughty British (who perpetrated many an outrage against most of the peoples of the Middle East at one time or another) being laid so low. David Pryce-Jones agrees. So do the editors of the Telegraph of the UK.

The editors of the National Review think Iran won this one. Adrian Hamilton writing in the Independent says Iran won on points. David Frum thinks this brings us closer to war.

Victor Davis Hanson thinks the Iranian leaders are just begging to be bombed, which is why we should, in his opinion, think twice about giving them their wish.

The Syrians say they helped obtain the release of the Brits. This NY Sun article says the U.S. helped.

This op-ed piece in the NY Times says we should learn a lesson from the release of the British hostages, that engagement with Iran is the way to go. Here is another piece extolling the virtues of diplomatic engagement.

The U.S. Supreme Court rules that greenhouse gas emissions can be regulated by the EPA. While this is a victory for the states that filed the lawsuit, along with environmental groups, it does not order the EPA to impose any regulations. I expect that the EPA will not issue any new regulations, reflecting the policy of the current administration to rely on voluntary controls. I also expect this to be an issue used by the Democrats to their advantage in the next election.

Heather MacDonald says the recent controversial police shooting in NYC should be the catalyst for an honest discussion about Black crime. I won't hold my breath waiting for such a discussion.

Even though he sees encouraging signs of progress (as does Bill Roggio in this report), and is heartened by the level of competence of the people now running the show, Max Hastings still cannot shake his feeling of doom about the Iraq War. His instincts are true, as the salient fact is not about the tactical situation in Iraq but, rather, the political situation here in the United States. The American people have already decided that we should abandon Iraq. This will, inevitably, lead to our retreat from that country by mid-2009 at the latest. Retired General Barry McCaffrey, who has been one of the most strident critics of the conduct of the war, says we have no choice but to stay the course in Iraq. He is correct, looking at the situation from a military and geopolitical standpoint. But, as I said, the domestic political component has already been decided. In the future, U.S. policymakers need to take into account the fact that America cannot win a long war without maintaining morale and resolve at home. We failed to do so in Vietnam, and we have failed again in Iraq.

Here is an article, written by a former Islamist terrorist, that explains why the radical, Salafi vision of Islam has such power within the Muslim community, and also why it is able to avoid condemnation from liberal, secular Western intellectuals.

Michael Ware says Matt Drudge got it wrong. He says, on the Raw Story website, that he has video to show he did not heckle John McCain in Baghdad. It sounds as if an official who has it in for Ware decided to take a whack at Ware by dropping that story into Drudge's lap. The video seems to confirm that there was no heckling or laughing. Whether or not Ware was visibly making faces, or smirking, one cannot tell from the video. If he was, that would not rise, in my opinion, to the level of unprofessional conduct at a press conference (and I have attended many over the years as a reporter). In any case, it cannot be shown by the video. Score one for Ware.

Michael Barone has some scenarios for the election of 2008. My gut still tells me the Democrats will win, if the Iraq War is still going the way it is going today, but Dick Morris has a scenario evolving from the looming stand-off about funding for the troops. As I also remember the government shutdown stand-off during the Clinton years, I can see the parallels which, this time, would bode well for the GOP.

Are we losing the war in Afghanistan? Are we losing the so-called war on terror, as Al Qaeda rebuilds its leadership infrastructure?

Michael Ware of CNN shows a lack of professionalism during a press conference in Baghdad.

Is Israel re-thinking the Iran problem?

Henry Kissinger says the war in Iraq cannot be won militarily. Certainly, as long as the MSM continues to run stories like this one, morale on the home front will continue to plummet. (By the way, there is nothing in the story that explicitly advocates a point of view either for or against our continued deployment in Iraq. It doesn't have to be explicit. It simply has to show the awful reality of war, and the seeming futility of the fight in Iraq).

Ynetnews is reporting that, according to Israeli intelligence, Iran and Hizbullah are preparing for an American strike.

Sources tell the Jerusalem Post that the U.S. is positioned to strike Iran as early as Good Friday. While the assets may be in place, I don't think the order will be given. Mainly, because the Iranians have hostages, who are constantly being paraded in front of the TV cameras. Eli Lake says the Iranians may hold the hostages until Tony Blair leaves office this Summer. If the hostages we held for 20 or 30 years, they would probably return to an unrecognizable country, based on stories like this one which illustrates the trends.

At least some in the U.K. realize that their European "allies" have already failed them. Of course, Mark Steyn already sees the whole episode as an example of British, and European, weakness. The Washington Times is reporting that the British government will send an envoy to try and obtain the hostages release, presumably by apologizing.

Here is an article in Slate that points out how few bombers the U.S. has left, and how the Air Force brass isn't planning to build any more, despite the fact that our bombers are far more effective than they have ever been.

Bob Novak says Fred Thompson is in the race for the GOP Presidential nomination. The link to this video is spreading, which tells me some folks are preparing the ground for a run. I welcome him into the race, as I am one of those Republicans unhappy with the current crop of choices.

Finally, it is Opening Day around most Major League Baseball (the Mets beat the Cardinals in the solo opener last night). While here in Red Sox Nation we continue to marvel at how our team has become so nationally prominent, at least one writer, anticipating the big story of the year (which will be when Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron's all-time career home run record under a cloud of steroids suspicion), writes that he believes it was expansion in the 1990s, not steroids, that led to the home run explosion.