The Pentagon and "patriotic" hawks for years supported a prohibition on publishing pictures of slain soldiers' caskets. Then President Obama lifted the ban, thus giving Matt Drudge an opportunity to create this lovely collage commemorating the Afghanistan war's 8th anniversary.

It's almost as if, by some miracle, Drudge suddenly understands the real, human cost of war, a war he tacitly cheered on during Bush's reign. But, no: it doesn't take a genius to see this for what it is: a not-so-subtle visual jab at President Obama, who's currently deciding our military's future in that country. (The line above the pictures reads "Obama clings to 50% approval...")

While Drudge doesn't offer an actual editorial on the matter, Sarah Palin does: the sorta politician took to her Facebook page today to join her Republican peers and ask Obama to add more troops to the region.

We can win in Afghanistan by helping the Afghans build a stable representative state able to defend itself. And we must do what it takes to prevail. The stakes are very high. The 9/11 attacks were planned in Afghanistan, and if we are not successful there, al Qaeda will once again find a safe haven, the Taliban will impose its cruelty on the Afghan people, and Pakistan will be less stable.

We wonder, however, whether Drudge and Palin's efforts, though ostensibly working toward the same goal, will nullify one another. Palin and the Republican set are explicit: more troops! The typically conservative Drudge, we're assuming, supports that message, but his anti-Obama bias has obscured the header's bellicose undertones.

What happens when impressionable readers see all the death on Drudge's and think, "Gee, maybe this war business isn't good for anything?" It's almost as if the conservative camp's having a Sybil moment. Not that we can blame them: pinning all this death and destruction on Obama must be hard while also calling for more death and destruction.