Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 13, 2010

The side effect of the World Cup.

One of the Shabab explains why they blew up the 70 Ugandan soccer fans: “We’re fighting to bring Islamic law to their country, because we are Muslims and it is according to the Koran.”

“You guys trained them” can refer also to the 14 Americans charged last Nov. with going to join the Shabab in Somalia.

Shahab’s statement in the last panel reminds me of my favorite quote from Animal House:

Flounder, you can’t spend your whole life worrying about your mistakes! You f***ed up… you trusted us! Hey, make the best of it!

Absolutely brilliant shift of the blame. There’s a place for that guy in Congress.

Is that Sargeant Ray? It sure has been a long deployment.

I posted the following late to the Sunday edition and I’m posting it here so maybe it will get more eyeballs.

kpinvt said, less than a minute ago

Join

www.anysoldier.com

Show your support for our men and women in uniform and join this effort to support them. It works. This dyed-in-the-wool lefty has been a member for seven years. First sending care packages to people I did not know and then sending packages to my nephew’s Marine company after he enlisted and went to Iraq and Afghanistan. He is home now safe and sound after 4 years active duty and 3 deployments. If you can’t send packages send the site some money to help keep it going.

^ i joined anysoldier.com and now have a new “friend” !

Replying to yesterday’s comments:

Lew, can you tell the difference between starting & continuing? Dwight Eisenhower began the U.S.’ involvement in Vietnam. John Kennedy & Lyndon Johnson continued & increased the U.S.’ involvement. Richard Nixon increased it, spread it into other nations, & then, finally, ended the U.S.’ involvement. Is that really so difficult to understand?

I understand your anger & shame over your time in Vietnam, but you should not take it out on yourself any longer, on your fellow soldiers, or on the rest of us whom you, without cause or evidence, label “draft dodgers”. I feel sorry for you, but you should really stop lashing out &, instead, begin doing good.

When I visit the Wall, I feel awe & thrills over what a brilliant monument it is. Simultaneously, I feel sadness & anger over the losses, including my own, and the waste. The Vietnam War was an enormous waste of lives & money. It should serve as a lesson, but true draft-dodgers, like your beloved Bush-Dick, refuse to learn the lesson &, instead, take the lesson that wars make money for the wealthy. Thus, we find President Obama moving toward ending two wars that an ethical president would never have begun.

In re today’s cartoon:

Ray (if that is Ray; he has different hair from the last time I recall seeing him), sometimes you just gotta let ’em make their own mistakes. When the bombers hurt the soccer-playing guards, then maybe their fellows will see that guarding is better than playing soccer. (Of course, the Iraqi captain would have called the game football.)

Yesterday was Henry David Thoreau’s 193rd birthday. He was a man who refused to fight in wars of imperialism & stood up for his principles, setting an example that has freed millions. Today is the 37th anniversary of Alexander Butterfield’s admission that Nixon taped conversations in the Oval Office & on the ’phone. I remember it clearly. What a wonderful day. In addition, it is the 25th anniversary of Live-Aid & Wole Soyinka’s 76th birthday. Good day, all.

I just posted the following in yesterday’s strip’s comment section, but since it seems to have continued here, I’ll re-post it:

How, exactly, did the Vietnam War stop anything? Didn’t the North do exactly what they set out to do, take over the South? Everything that we fought there to prevent came to pass, and as a result nearly 60,000 Americans and countless thousands of others died for nothing.

Sorry if you think you served your country, Lewreader, but this country was not served by anything that was done there, just like Iraq.

Why do GT’s cartoons, devised to spotlight some immediate political problem, instead make some readers look inward to remembered failures or personal blame? Is GT a Christian liberal, more interested in his conscience than in historical reality?

Sergeant Ray (?) needs to realize that any guilt he may feel pales in comparison to the demonic evil (Islamism) that holds the ISF (Iraq Security Force) in thrall. He needs to keep his eye on the real danger, not look for imaginary failings in himself or in his “culture.”

GT seems unaware that he’s mocking his own Christian liberalism, which by looking inwards can only breed cowards, not soldiers. Christianity becomes fiendish—-literally demonic—-when it cripples our ability to objectify evil, which does not confine itself to our petty, egotistical souls.

Ps. @ Brian and Lew

I’d rather hear your thoughts on the strip than your opinions of one another.

BRIAN I would lover to see your history book. Eisenhower never put troops in. Look at your liberal friendly history book and see if the word adviser’s is in the glossary. I like how you glossed over a certain Democrat’s bending of the Constitution with the Gulf of Tomkin Resolution. Wasn’t that in response to a fictional attack so Johnson could bypass the need for congressional approval?You call it”increased involvement”? Is that a euphemism for murdered 58,000 men?

But you didn’t care. You had you rich boy college deferment. Besides it was a bad war. You knew more than anyone over 30. What’s that tired old joke? What’s the difference between war and peace? There has never been a good war.

Thanks for your liberal history book on Thoreau. Isn’t it on public record (real records, not his gibberish) that he was imprisoned for tax evasion, like those rich banker types you so respect? Yeah, he tried to claim it was a civil disobedience (crime) to protest the War between the States. For some reason, when his friends and neighbors bankrupt themselves to pay his taxes, he willingly walked out of jail. I have to remember that this is the same man who burned his neighbors barn to get nails for his house.Did you love this liar as much as I when we were gullible undergrads listening to pinko professors. Thank God (oops, hope that word doesn’t offend) we grew up and don’t listen to those leftist lies anymore.

And BRIAN I’m sure you have your reasons for printing lies about me, but why do you attack my family? Are women and children fair game? If you think I am lying when I call you a draft dodger, what did you do for your county (Didn’t one of your Democrats say that?) ? You said you didn’t join the military because it was a bad war. You didn’t join the Peace Corps to save the world, why? Could it be because Brian was preparing himself for a future for Brian and to heck with the world cause Brian was more important? Yup, don’t squat in the mud with the Marine Corps. Don’t sweat in the mud building a dam in the Peace Corps. Stay clean protesting what you were told to protest.

ThomasPaine, I again take issue with the smug and simplistic contention that our young men in Vietnam or Iraq accomplished nothing. They changed the world by making a statement on behalf of this country. It doesn’t even matter if they emerged victorious on the battlefield… the statement itself changed history profoundly, and in my opinion (which is all either of has to go on), for the better.

You can disagree on the validity of the statements themselves, but it’s simply not credible to think that the statements - and the men’s blood who made them - made no difference. History changed, as did the future which you yourself enjoy.

I wonder how the Vietnam and Iraq wars have changed history for the better.

The thing about trying to reason with insanity is that it’s insane

I wonder if the families of the dead soldiers think their world is better now.

We trained our current enemies too. When it comes to wars, things always seem to go awry.

Vietnam soldiers did not accomplish anything? Wrong wrong wrong. That “war” kept us out of El Salvador even if Reagan was dying to get us in, but the people were sick of war and would have none of it. Thanks Vietnam Vets.

There were two wars in Vietnam. The French and “ours.” If Roosevelt had taken a strong public stand against France returning to Vietnam, we might have skipped the whole thing. He took such a stand in private, but when Truman took over, he did not know this and allowed De Gaulle to use Am. ships to move French soldiers back there. There are many excellent books on this subject.

I take it then Lewreader that you have never been to the War memorial in Washington. it clearly states that November 1, 1955 — President Eisenhower deploys the Military Assistance Advisory Group to train the ARVN (South Vietnamese Army). This marks the official beginning of American involvement in the war.

I supposed you also don’t know about the letter Ho Chi Minh sent to Pres Truman asking him to support democratic elections in Vietnam. Both Pres Truman and Pres Eisenhower refused to support Ho Chi Minh because they knew he would be the overwhelming winner in any free election and that he was actively fighting the French who were being lead by French President Charles de Gaulle who was a close personal friend of Pres Eisenhower and admired by Pres Truman.

I learned this in Jr High School history. How could you as a Vietnam Vet who says he has studied and read the history of Vietnam miss all of these extremely important details?

Here is a copy to the actual letter that Ho Chi Minh sent to Pres. Truman. http://www.ena.lu/letter-ho-chi-minh-harry-truman-28-february-1946-020702990.html

History repeating itself?

History doesn’t repeat, it only rhymes. For anybody interested in picking up the rhymes in today’s strip, here’s the word from Odierno:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/world/middleeast/14iraq.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

We’ll be down to 50,000 troops by 1 Sept.

Moqtad al Sadr’s Shiites will be attacking as spectacularly as their means allow so they can boast they drove us out—-just the way Hamas drove Israel out of Gaza.

With their childlike imaginations, the Arab Islamists need to believe their own propaganda so they can turn it into history. At least we still treat history as debatable (we in this forum, anyhow).

Thanks, T. Paine, I agree.

Drome, why not both? Besides, I do not know what you are hearing. In this forum, I just read & write. In addition, I cannot tell what your comment is about in referring to “the demonic evil (Islamism)”. Please explain. Thanks. Thanks, too, for the article from the TIMES. The U.S. must clean up all its messes & leave Iraq. Iraq must learn to police itself. In addition, the U.S. must prevent American private business from wreaking havoc on Iraq’s fledgling democracy.

Lew, I will not be your lover, but thanks for the offer. On other matters, I did not write that Dwight Eisenhower sent troops to Vietnam. You REALLY need to learn to read—and to write. I recall your proposing the return of literacy tests for voting. Your message here shows that you would lose the franchise.

As for Lyndon Johnson’s enlargement of the Vietnam War, you get no argument from me. It was disgraceful; it drove him from office, and it slaughtered & maimed thousands of people, both American & Vietnamese. I cared greatly about the war, and I had no “rich boy college deferment” for two reasons: 1.) Not rich; 2.) Not yet of college age. By the time that I attended college (getting loans & grants & taking jobs to pay for tuition), the deferment was a thing of the past.

As for Henry David Thoreau, your paragraph makes so many mistakes that I have not the time to correct it. As for your family, I wrote nothing about them. CAN YOU READ AT ALL?? As for what I did for my county, I support my county every day: paying taxes; obeying laws, speed limits, &c.; teaching its children & children in surrounding counties; volunteering in its library; voting; and just trying to be a good citizen. I trust that you do the same for your county. I do not know which Democrat asked about my county.

As for saying that the Vietnam War was a bad war, that would imply that there might be good wars. I would rather say that the Vietnam War was an utter, bloody waste, and it angers me to think of it & to think of the lessons that too many in power have not learned. I never stated any reason for joining or not joining the military. No one on this forum or any other—to the best of my recollection—has asked me why I joined or did not join the military. I have exhorted those who supported Bush-Dick’s invasions & occupations of Afghanistan & Iraq to enlist, since doing otherwise places them in the disgraceful position of Bush-Dick himself during Vietnam: gung ho for the war but pulling every possible string not to fight. Neither you nor I took that position, and we are better men for it.

What “statement on behalf of this country” did the soldiers in Vietnam or Iraq make, Nemesys? Moreover, was it worth the trillions of dollars, the hundreds of thousands dead or wounded? To say, “history changed” is to say nothing. History always changes. W/out the Vietnam War or the invasion of Iraq, we would still have history, merely different—and, I hope less bloody—history.

Thanks, Bargrove & Badto, for the historical information. If Franklin Roosevelt had chosen a vice-president with foreign policy experience, then we might have saved many lives. In foreign relations, Harry Truman was out of his depth.

Lew, you KNOW there were no rich boy deferments. During Vietnam, that was what the Reserves were for. (Unlike today where THEY do the fighting and rich kids don’t have to worry about the draft.) There was Canada and that influx of Americans helped turn it into one of the more liberal nations in the world. There was the teacher deferment and that sent a bunch of liberal men into the teaching system where EVERYONE on the right is now screaming about them. There was Europe where several of my friends hid but returned with the “amnesty” cause Europeans are even more biased against Americans taking their jobs then we are against Mexicans taking ours. There was the Navy except they had the Seals and the SeaBees and some guys found out they weren’t getting out of the War after all. (Nothing like dropping a guy into one of those river caves and pulling him back up with a mass of vipers on him cause the place wasn’t flamed enough.) And there was the lottery where anything over roughly 100 was a winner for sure.

All that was during a DRAFT Army age, Not this volunteer age and Both Palin and Brain are right in that it’s been over a long time. Besides, you might mention that being a vet got you an IN at the Post Office that you wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Brian, our generation got hit with a bunch of stuff you can’t comprehend, being you seem to be younger. I don’t envy you what you have to face now, either, but each generation has it’s own pits. We had cheap gas, but we got Agent Orange and jungles like you can’t even conceive of. We had the sudden freedom of those “awful” liberal notions that led to both good and bad and folks choose to remember either one or the other. We went from getting the girl pregnant in clumsy backseat fumbling and then marrying her to girls having kids out of wedlock and literally getting a free education out of it. We’re in a little culture shock to say the least. And a lot of folks obviously blame the Nam loss and the way others treated them when they got home for some of the idiocy now. It has some vibes, Man. And Doones was there through the whole blistering era. You can tell Palin we feel the reverb like talking with an old friend when we read him. So memories stir. :-)

BRIAN Did you not on several occations say my wife worked to support me. Have I ever said anything about your wife or husband? Can you read the personal attacks you commit between your pinko dribble? Let me repeat CAN YOU READ AT ALL?

You don’t have time to defend the Thoreau fairy tail? You mean he didn’t go to jail for tax evation? You mean someone ELSE didn’t pay his taxes? You mean Mr Nature did not burn down his neighbor’s barn for nails for his natural wonderland? You mean someone forged the town records?

I’m sure you got your information from books written by doctorial candidates kissing the butt of their lefty advisors. Of course they write of a criminal act against the U. S. Government as a noble act to better mankind. Perhaps they praise this forefather of recycling for being so frugal with nails. I know the Peace, Love, and Drug crowd when I was a kid thought That transendental stuff was real

About Truman: there would be NO Israel without Truman. And Europe would be starving. Israel has been blessed with the richest lands on the planet since the Jews took over a once desolate wasteland, finding more water than anyplace in the ME, one REAL reason the Muslims want the land. And they provide 1/4 of the food for all Europe.

Brian,

Islamism = demonic evil, i.e. the Muslim version of a kind of demonic possession that deprives us of our moral integrity by persuading us that good and evil are interchangeable—-or equal and opposite, like the spinelessly “balanced” newscasts on tv.

Immanuel Kant, one of the greatest philosophers, warned against demonism when he showed that our reason by itself is not an adequate guide to behavior. On the contrary, “Pure Reason” in its fiendishly clever irrelevance can actually paralyze our “Practical Reason” or freedom of choice, which is our moral essence.

When you reason that war, because it’s irrational, can have no moral purpose, you’re abdicating your practical reason for the sake of conventionally liberal rationalism (or Christian—-or political—-correctness).

Ps. That’s a very affecting review, freeholder; I’m old enough to feel its vibes. I used to despise academic liberals from the 60s and 70s, but now that they’ve been replaced by the characterless neo-cons and neo-libs, I miss their kindly cynicism and their sense of humor. That’s why I like to read GT.

I hesitate to comment here because I’m sure I’ll be ripped, but here goes. In 1952 or ‘53 (Truman or Eisenhower) The Navy was asking for qualified volunteers to go to Indo-China to Advise/Assist/Train (take your pick) the French on the F8F Bearcats that we’d sold them. Had to be E-5 or above, and in my trade, AO, be able to trouble shoot the rather rudimentary fire control system. I was an E-3 at the time. In 1960 A couple of my buddies in sunny Keflavik were hoping for orders to Saigon. Didn’t happen. This isn’t opinion, philosophy, or analysis, just piddly stuff I remember After a tour in the Middle East I got out just before the Cuban Missile Crisis, Joined the Air Guard years later to get my twenty in.

As GT shows us every week, history is made up of piddly stuff, coot. Thanks for the contribution.

easy, boys, easy. take a breath, quaff a beer together and then take it outside - not here.