ROY EDROSO

In the early days of the second Gulf War, those on the web who inveighed most loudly in its favor announced that they would devote themselves to real-time coverage of hostilities. "I plan to be blogging around the clock during the war," assured Andrew Sullivan. "From now on, it's tanks and missles, but the blogs will be right behind."

Their dispatches have been based mostly on what they see on TV, and links to similarly-inclined couch-tornadoes. Perhaps it is unsurprising that a large amount of their commentary has been devoted to people and events far from Iraq.

At The Corner, Jacques Chirac, of course, receives major abuse ("neither a statesman, nor an ally, nor a friend, except, I suppose, to Saddam and Mugabe"), as do insolent prelates ("The bishop ought to read his catechism more closely when it comes to war"), Heath Ledger, and other enemies of freedom.

But a few major fronts were opened up. On day one, The Corner devoted major bloggage to an assault on "paleoconservatives" of the Buchanan stripe, launched with a David Frum article. The concurrences came so thick and fast ("They pound on their high chairs and shout nasty curses and think they are great thinkers") that one might have briefly thought that coalition forces had invaded the offices of The American Conservative magazine. Even John Derbyshire stepped up--first to demur ("the paleos are right about one thing: the folly of uncontrolled immigration..."), then to retreat from his demurrer ("it's arguable to what degree immigration reform is a paleo issue..."). Another figurative oil fire was put out as Jonah Goldberg rushed to abate collateral damage among the evangelical readership ("I really hope that nothing I have written about the Paleos -- or about anything else for that matter -- is construed as anti-Christian. Now, I'm off to drink some Jameson's"). Goldberg then attempted to expand the Axis to include Libertarians ("it is galling that Reason and to a certain extent the Cato Institute have taken little to no effort to police their own...") but was beaten back ("Some of the most passionate defenders of the constitution I know are hardcore libertarians") in time for the first bombing of Baghdad.

By week's end Cornerites had gotten their bearings, and began to heavy up on a still greater threat than paleos and libertoids: Americans who oppose the war. "While the war is on," writes Frum, "...it is their duty to say nothing that might tend to embolden or sustain the enemy." What he means by this is protest--any protest: "The protesters are Saddam's best hope" (though, given the imminence of his defeat, one wonders: Saddam's best hope for what?). Goldberg takes it further: "Let the useful idiots cheer the liberation if they like...But don't let them forget that they never believed these things would be worth it if the price was letting America have its way."

Though they came around to their mission quickly, the Cornerites have nothing on the aforementioned Sullivan. He, too, has individual bugbears, like Peter Jennings, the BBC, and, of course, his former employers ("the New York Times' attempt to spin this war against the United States"). But the opponents of war are his hard target. "The American left is the most important ally of some of the most despicable dictators and mass-murderers in the world." "These protests are about no-one but the protestors. It's their anti-Bush therapy. They're going to need much more of it in the near future." "If this war continues as well as it has been, won't the anti-war left not merely be defeated but beyond humiliated? And won't that leave an impression on at least some of them?"

Readers can get more of this sort of thing, if they so desire, from any warblog, where they will be told that the success of the invasion, and the understandable relief of people who are no longer in harm's way, proves that the Iraq war is not only the best way to fight terrorism, but the only way, and that any countervailing opinion is "morally and intellectually unserious." Perhaps I should say, the best start of a way to fight terrorism, as its celebrants are already looking ahead to battles with North Korea ("'Kim, boobie, we can just move all of this stuff to the Sea of Japan'") and Iran ("Even the Guardian can smell it").

Long after Iraq is pacified, commentators will still be fanning out across the internet, sniffing out pockets of resistance. America vs. Iraq is close to over. Americans vs. Americans, alas, will probably go on for quite some time.