"Twenty-Three-Year-Old-American Male Massacres Thirty Two Civilians"

For all of its errors and deliberate misrepresentations, Michael Moore's film Bowling for Columbine was not a total waste. One important juxtaposition by Moore is the presence of a Lockheed Martin plant (the largest defense contractor) in the town of Littleton, Colorado. More than this, the April 19, 1999 massacre at Columbine took place the same day as major attacks were launched in the ongoing Kosovo War. Also on that day in 1999, John McCain introduced a resolution that would grant President Clinton the right "to use all necessary force and other means," with wording quite similar to the eventual post-9/11 and Iraq War resolutions.

And to connect all of the above dots, just take a look at this series of pictures from the Kosovo War and another historic event.

As I witnessed the events of the past few days unfolding 4 hours and 19 minutes from my home, I could not help but start to connect similar dots in my head. A column by Paul Campos yesterday comes close to expressing what is in my mind, as Campos compares the number of dead in Blacksburg to Baghdad. But I would like to push this sentiment slightly further. On the road between my home and Blacksburg is the Virginia Military Institute, the "West Point of the South," where no doubt many twenty-three-year-old-American males currently serving in Iraq received their training.

The phrase that comes immediately to mind is "culture of violence." But instead of blaming this on guns or video games or rock and roll, perhaps we should recall Timothy McVeigh's last words, a quotation from Justice Brandeis. Dissenting in Olmstead v. United States, Brandeis stated that "our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example."

The title quotation will of course bring to mind images of that horrible day in Blacksburg, but could it just as easily be a headline about an event in Baghdad?