Is this cartoon unfair? And to whom?

[chefmike]

The Joint Chiefs are upset at this cartoon.

Do they have a right to be upset? Are we doing enough for the 8,000 severely injured veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan? The war in Iraq is a war that many citizens, including active and former military, consider a mistake...yet the number of casualties and severely injured keep growing...

Chiefs Of Staff complaint-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/01/AR2006020102465.html

An article regarding health care of Iraq vets-

Why are things so bad for the 8,000 soldiers severely injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, that private citizens have to raise money for their care?

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10842565/site/newsweek/

Note that the cartoon refers to the US Army, and is not making light of any particular soldier's horrible plight ...

[Moister]

They wanted this war, they got this war..and these are the consquences. We aren't required to lock step behind them when they do fucked up things. Let their complaints fall on deaf ears.

[chefmike]

VAIW - Veterans Against The Iraq War

Support the Troops, Oppose the Policy

http://www.vaiw.org/vet/index.php

[The American Nightmare]

The following rant is directed at no one on this board:

I doubt I will ever comprehend the portrayed sensitivity of our troops. It seems like every time somebody wants to discuss things, or share their doubts, some Whitehouse blowhard has to piss and moan about how that kind of stuff is "bad for the troops."

These men and women in the armed forces get shot at, blown up, sometimes imprisoned and killed. But some guy in Washington talking is gonna hurt their feelings? Do America a favor and stop making our soldiers look like pansies.

[Legend]

Unfair to no one,rumsfield brought that upon himself now that a cartoonist wants to tell the truth about him,he wants to act like a crybaby, i really think the cartoonist didnt want to disrespect the soldiers but hurt rumsfield and it did just that.

[fishman33]

Not entirely sure how I feel about that one, Mike. I guess I'll have to say that I don't like it when either side uses soldiers like that. Sure the Republicans are responsible for the war, but I saw first hand a lot of the areas affected by cutbacks instituted during the Clinton years. Then again, I've seen things like 2 46" Plasma TVs that were purchased for no appearent reason and are used to monitor, hell, I don't even know what. I guess my point is that no one side is to blame for soldiers lacking sufficient care. Leftists/Rightists, 'neocons', Pentagon Brass..plenty of blame to go around- but PLEASE leave the soldiers out of it!

I do agree with Nightmare, to a certain degree. Quit treating the men and women of the armed forces like sensitive, little ninnies. I hate it when soldiers are used as political props.


::author's note:: before you bash me let me state that: 1) I liked Clinton, thought he was an allright Pres (but I do hate his wife), 2) I'm neither Republican nor Democrat, in fact, I hate the two party system, don't believe in democracy (not that we live in one anyway) because the majority of people are too stupid to be making decisions that might affect world history and 3) I'm just a simple Marine throwing in my two cents on the cartoon. thanks for your time.

[Felicia Katt]

The Joint Chiefs didn't write a letter over this
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/Anti-Cleland.rm
or any other other part of the Chambliss campaign that accused Max Cleland, a decorated solidier who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam, of cowardice and "breaking his oath to protect and defend the Constitution."

Chambliss did not participate in Vietnam. He had a bad knee.

You'd think Generals might be a little better at picking their battles?

FK

[Sidney]

Notice how innocent-looking cartoons are pissing so many people off? Rumsfeld, intolerant Muslims who want to kill all Danish people for daring to make fun of their religion...

I seem to remember that Boss Tweed, here in NYC, never cared about the newspaper reports about his corruption, greed and graft... But the cartoons (mostly by Thomas Nast) drove him nuts!!!

We need more cartoons in the world, and less hard-headed, evil, corrupt bigots.

[chefmike]

Not entirely sure how I feel about that one, Mike. I guess I'll have to say that I don't like it when either side uses soldiers like that. Sure the Republicans are responsible for the war, but I saw first hand a lot of the areas affected by cutbacks instituted during the Clinton years. Then again, I've seen things like 2 46" Plasma TVs that were purchased for no appearent reason and are used to ., hell, I don't even know what. I guess my point is that no one side is to blame for soldiers lacking sufficient care. Leftists/Rightists, 'neocons', Pentagon Brass..plenty of blame to go around- but PLEASE leave the soldiers out of it!

I do agree with Nightmare, to a certain degree. Quit treating the men and women of the armed forces like sensitive, little ninnies. I hate it when soldiers are used as political props.


::author's note:: before you bash me let me state that: 1) I liked Clinton, thought he was an allright Pres (but I do hate his wife), 2) I'm neither Republican nor Democrat, in fact, I hate the two party system, don't believe in democracy (not that we live in one anyway) because the majority of people are too stupid to be making decisions that might affect world history and 3) I'm just a simple Marine throwing in my two cents on the cartoon. thanks for your time.

Fishman, while I don't agree with the whole of your post, I always respect your opinions and demeanor. My dad (may he rest in peace) was a jarhead who served in the hell known as the Korean war, and you and I were part of the same branch of the military...you Marines being part of our Navy, I mean... :wink: Semper Fi and Anchors Away!

[Quinn]

My two cents. I can't get enough political cartoons. They give me some of my best laughs, but more than that, a good cartoon can communicate an idea more effectively than 20 minutes of television or a page of writing. keep them coming.

-Quinn

[chefmike]

Speaking of our military and what they have endured in Iraq, I caught a great movie on the IFC channel. A true story of the most highly decorated British patrol since the Boer war: an eight man SAS team inserted behind Iraqi lines during the Gulf war in January 1991. It's called Bravo Two Zero.
here is the IMDB link about the movie-

http://imdb.com/title/tt0120617/

It's an incredible story, and I think I'll check out the book, although it's not for the squeamish...

[PhillyTSlover]

The biggest problem with that cartoon is that it insults our intelligence. If you're really stupid enough to believe the cartoonist's propaganda, and honestly believe that's how the Administration views our veterans, then it's a damned good thing we're running the country right now. If you lot were in charge, we'd have been attacked a few more times by now.

[chefmike]

The biggest problem with that cartoon is that it insults our intelligence. If you're really stupid enough to believe the cartoonist's propaganda, and honestly believe that's how the Administration views our veterans, then it's a damned good thing we're running the country right now. If you lot were in charge, we'd have been attacked a few more times by now.

:roll: :smh :screwy

[Felicia Katt]

The biggest problem with that cartoon is that it insults our intelligence. If you're really stupid enough to believe the cartoonist's propaganda, and honestly believe that's how the Administration views our veterans, then it's a damned good thing we're running the country right now. If you lot were in charge, we'd have been attacked a few more times by now.
You'd have to show some intelligence before it could be insulted. That cartoon has NOTHING to do with our soldiers. It has everything to do with a secretary of Defense, who, whistling past the graveyard he has filled, ignores the Pentagon commissioned reports of his own experts, and the objective facts of declining re-enlistment, reduced recruitment well below goals, National guardsman unavailable during recent disasters because too many have been committed too long to Iraq, forces being pulled out of Europe over NATO allies' objections, even shifting the Marines who have guarded West Point for the last 100 plus years or so to active duty. All this in denial that our Military is not stretched thin, but is merely battle hardened.

Rumsfeld is a military anorexic. The ribs are showing, and the pants are baggy, and the cheeks are hollow and he looks in the mirror and still sees a well fed Defense, with a few pounds to spare.


FK

[chefmike]

An Open Letter to Bubba
By Charlie Anderson, Iraq Veterans Against the War
I’ve seen you around. I’ve seen you driving your gas guzzling SUV with the “Support Our Troops” ribbon on the back. I’ve seen you wearing your pro-war/pro-bush t-shirts as you walk right past me in my Iraq Veterans Against the War t-shirt as if I don’t exist. And I’ve seen you at anti-war rallies and meetings where I often speak, as you wave your American flag and call me a traitor. In this country we have freedom of speech. But you owe me and every other veteran of this war the respect of listening to our experience.

Your magnet says “support our troops,” but what have you done for us? Not a penny of the proceeds go to us, instead they go to sweatshops in . You say that I am not supporting the troops when I say that they should come home. But I am, because I know that there was no threat to our nation from Saddam Hussein, I know that had no weapons of mass destruction, and I know that we were not welcomed in as liberators. I know that the war was not worth fighting. I know, because I fought there. You say I’m confused. But what do you know about ? You’ve never been there.

You have the audacity to claim that by not supporting the president, I don’t support the troops. Yet, the president chose to send over 160,000 of us to unprepared and without a defined mission. We had no body armor, no vehicle armor, and poor supplies of ammunition. Our families spent thousands of dollars that they did not have to supply us, while President Bush did nothing. In fact he didn’t even scold his Offensive Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, when he told our forward deployed troops, “you go to war with the army you have, not the army you wish you had.” Moreover, the mission was originally about weapons of mass destruction, but there were none. Then it was making a democracy, but yet the “insurgency” worsens. Now the president has decided that in order to honor those who died for nothing, more must die for nothing.

At present, 2,241 of my brothers and sisters in arms have died. In some way, they may be the lucky ones. Over sixteen thousand others have been wounded in this war, thousands more than planned. The term wounded sounds sterile, bland, and inoffensive. But, in reality, many of them have been so horribly damaged that medical science had to create a new word to describe their wounds: polytrauma. These people would have died in earlier wars, but because of the gallant efforts of brave doctors and medics, they get to live. They get to live with teams of ten or more doctors just trying to get their broken, mangled bodies through another day, as their families look on in horror. They get to live in a physical and emotional hell, not able to recover and not able to voice the pain they feel or the psychological demons they face. All the while suffering with a Veterans Administration under funded by nearly three billion dollars and unable to care for them in the manner they deserve.

So which one of us supports the troops? You, who has never set foot in Iraq and wants to leave my brothers and sisters there until they complete whatever the undefined mission of the week is, or me, the veteran of this war who has seen the carnage of battle, the rampant indifference of my countrymen, and just wants to bring my brothers and sisters home alive and care for them when they get here?

Keep coming to the rallies. Maybe I’ll get through your thick skull eventually. But remember I waved my flag in Baghdad , so you can sit down, shut up, and listen to me.
Please Donate to the IVAW

http://www.vaiw.org/vet/index.php

[shemalejunky]

I imagine that chefmike's last post could be directed at the Dems and their supporters as well. They have no real idea of what is going on, and probably would continue the carnage without direction if they were in power.

[chefmike]

Tell that to Rep. John Murtha, chickenhawk.

[yourdaddy]

John Murtha has dementia. When he is booted out of congress shortly, who will be your fall-back guy waffle boy? John Kerry?

[chefmike]

John Murtha has dementia. When he is booted out of congress shortly, who will be your fall-back guy waffle boy? John Kerry?

:trolls

Who ordered the redneck ala troll?

[Chica]

heard about the cartoon published in danish and french newspapers where the islam god had a bomb, we get riots over here, being threatened to die, saying another 9/11 will happen etc, and nothing happens to them, yet if we say something bad back, it's jail time for the british... now thats society gone crazy

[Felicia Katt]

Funny that no-one seems to have made a thread about that here! Talk about a religion with no sense of humour...


how about another religion with no sense of humour
http://articles.news.aol.com/tv/article.adp?id=20060202190209990023

FK

[chefmike]

another look at the comment/cartoon in question...