this cartoon was in reaction to rumsfeld's statements last week in response to a pentagon study saying that the war in iraq is "breaking" the u.s. army. the defense secretary responded by saying that the army is "battle hardened".
the joint chiefs of staff sent a letter to the washington post chiding the paper for publishing material detrimental to troop morale: "While you or some of your readers may not agree with the war or its conduct, we believe you owe the men and women and their families who so selflessly serve our country the decency to not make light of their tremendous physical sacrifices."
it's become standard operating procedure in this government to not respond to the substance of criticism, but the source of it. tom toles' caricature is obviously not meant to deride the quadripalegic soldier but the manner in which the defense secretary seems to be oblivious to this and all soldiers' plight.
i'll say it again: what else is new. try to question the administration in their mishandling of the war and you aren't supporting the troops. democratic veterans like jack murtha, john kerry, and max cleland who criticize only the civilian "leadership" are labelled "unpatriotic".
fuck them in their asses. this cartoon is my new wallpaper. the joint chiefs can lick my fruit bowl. rumsfeld... not worthy of licking my fruit bowl.
addendum
i read this in a post article:
Dave Autry, deputy communications director for Disabled American Veterans, said he was "certainly not" offended by the cartoon.
"It was graphic, no doubt about it," he said. "But it drove home a point, that there are critically ill patients that certainly need to be attended to."
1 comment:
One of my college columns was about The Passion of the Christ. The political cartoon next to the column depicted a Jesus action figure (and generally reflected the subject of my column, because the cartoonist and I worked together). A Jesus Freak friend of mine told me the cartoon was appalling and I asked me if I agree with it. I said, "What, do I agree that Jesus is being treated like a commodity, something to be bought and sold? Yes, absolutely." I had to deal with stuff like that all semester, because apparently conservatives don't get cartoons more subtle than depicting the Middle East as a smoking hole.
Great post.
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