"She's a traitor! She's a traitor! Hahahahahahaha!"

The rocket scientists over at Powerline are just starting to realize that the Cindy Sheehan story is gaining traction in the mainstream media. Sheehan seemed harmless at first. Basically, she's just sitting with a bunch of anti-war protesters outside Bush's ranch in Crawford, demanding to meet with the President about her son, who was killed in combat in Iraq. But the whole affair has taken on a strange momentum of its own.

As Maureen Dowd and many others have pointed out, Bush could have avoided the entire mess weeks ago by simply meeting with the woman; but to the Masters of Destiny in this administration, that would have been an unmanly show of weakness. So what to do, what to do?

Simple. Release the flying monkeys! Go to it, Powerline!

The apparent absence of WMD when we arrived in Iraq makes it plausible (though I believe unpersuasive) to argue that, in hindsight, we would have been better off not sending our troops there.

Millions of Americans, perhaps a majority, believe that.

Thank you for acknowledging that 54% might constitute a majority.

Some of them believe (albeit without justification) that President Bush lied about whether Iraq possessed WMD.

The law of averages tells us that the parents of the men and women fighting in Iraq will include many who are unhappy about the war, and some who think Bush lied. If their sons and daughters are injured or killed, they may come to holds these views more fervently.

Nice catch, Captain Obvious.

Under these circumstances, the most interesting thing about the Sheehan protest is that (to my knowledge) this is the first of its kind. It speaks volumes for the fortitude of the families of our troops and our overall national character that, whatever their private views about the war and about Bush, they decline to act as this parent does. Even in Cindy Sheehan's case, she apparently acted very differently during her meeting with President Bush in the aftermath of her son's death. And I understand that the rest of the Sheehan family has made a point of repudiating her conduct.

This last charge is based on an email sent to Drudge yesterday, apparently by Cindy Sheehan's sister-in-law. The author or authors of the email would not even sign their names to it. I can only speculate that this serves a dual purpose: it allows the wingers to paint the authors as "the rest of the Sheehan family" (when it's clearly only the wingnut faction of the family) and also to keep military recruiters from making a few house-calls -- to see if any of these super-patriots have children eligible for military service.

Speaking of super-patriots, John Hinderaker at Powerline apparently has a son who is eligible for military service. John has not yet regaled the Powerline readers with the adventures of young Hinderaker's courageous service in Iraq, but I am sure we'll be reading about it anytime now. After all, the war is so important, so noble, and sacrifice is sometimes necessary in the defense of liberty. Right, John?