Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 06, 2011

It’s not the jammies, Sam. Ray needs some help.

Experience colors expectations; expectations color perception. My little daughters running in and slamming the screen door behind them had me behind the couch for a couple months; sounds just like a 122… Forty years later, I still flinched at the firefights all over town last night, but it’s getting better.

Interesting. At first I thought GT used a cut & paste for Ray’s head shot in panels 2 & 4 but other expected cut & paste opportunities are different: The fireplace stone pattern is completely different, his shirt sleeve has different lengths, Ray’s hair line is different, the pillow disappears, Sam’s collar changes… Not sure how to grade this: Kudos for not taking the easy way out or Duns for lack of attention to detail.

It’s ART, fercryinoutloud! Though I’m a little bothered by the bulge in the fireplace in panel 2, back in place by 4.Is the viewpoint maybe having a little toke? It CAN affect perceptions, especially of Space and Time…

I would question the soul of mankind if we did not come home emotionally scared. The very idea of “Shoot that man because he is wearing a different uniform than us” should cause every man to pause and think of his immortal soul. “I wonder if that man in a different uniform has a wife and kid?” “Kill him! He’d Kill you!” Who cried in Homer over his fallen adversary? With a small pull of your trigger, you just took another man’s life. If you don’t have feelings, I hope we use the bomb.Get over it! Well, the VA may have written the book on PTSD, but even with the worlds best working with us, it’s not easy road. Even psychiatrists, psychologists and chaplains can’t undo the fact that you took human life.

How the hell is it that we as a species cannot ever remember, not once in human history, from one generation to the next that war is a terrible idea? Old men send eager young men off to die again and again.

and the pink jammies are the beginnings of the air-brushed media brainwashes of little girls, already worried about their weight. the price men pay for being trained to become killing machines is great, the weight of guilt is great, the deceptions of the government that found them expedient and not worth caring for once they are damaged are numerous. when they talk about the shortages of men as mates for women of a certain age, they don’t talk about the potential loves who died in Korea, in Viet Nam. They rarely figure in those losses.

Don’t forget the different hurricane lamp and candle on the mantle.

I love the fact that GT doesn’t use background templates for his panels. He apparently redraws each panel from scratch (coloring is probably done by others, though).

Ray is probably beyond help. He’s gone so deep, so long, that he may not be able to “decompress” anymore. I’m personally acquainted with a number of Nam Vets, and WWII Vets, who were in the same frame of mind. Most are gone now, but they were no less damaged then Ray. The only ones that may be able to hep Ray are his “buddies”. They are the only ones who really understand what he has gone through. That is why he misses them.

not going to get a whole lot of sympathy or understanding there from Sam, good buddy

Sam is too young to understand Ray’s problems. Afghanistan and Iraq are simply TV programs. The general public hasn’t contributed to these wars, no taxes to pay for them, no rationing, no collecting metal or milkweed pods to help with the effort. Nothing except the few families sending their young ones to war.

And yet for all who think war is so terrible (which it is), we still let people use insanity as a reason to find not guilty in murder cases. A person has to reach a level of insanity to kill another living being, in war or not. Using insanity as a plea is no excuse and guilty should be the response.

From what I read, PTSD is not as common among vets as you’d believe from fiction.

Unfortunately, war is a human trait. The leapard can not change his spots. You might say it is nature’s way of sorting out the strong from the weak. I had rather be on the side of the strong.

The problem may lie in a society more concerned with the intricacies of “background art”, than the horrors shoved in their faces? Only a small percentage of “soldiers” actually participate in “combat”, as in pulling the trigger on someone. Many in fact refuse to pull the trigger- THAT is the history of “modern” warfare. The real tragedy is those “normal” people so willing now to pull the trigger remotely, or get someone in a bunker in Nevada to do it for them. “Insanity” is a misnomer, more accurately, NOBODY who has been in real combat is ever again “normal”. They can’t remove the results from the action, as “civilians” find so easy in our oblivious and acutely “normal” culture.

I firmly believe that war can be a necessity at times. I also believe it should always be the last resort. Having said that I can honestly say that I do commiserate with those that have fought so bravely for our freedom. Never having been a soldier in combat I cannot hope to understand what it is they have gone through, or how it has effected them. I am sure it is profound. It is a hard thing to kill a fellow human being. Having said that I can also say with equal assuridy that I would not hesitate to pull the trigger if placed in a situation where it is kill or be killed. As George C. Scott said in Patton, “Now I want you to remember that no b@st@rd ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb b@st@rd die for his country.”

He (Patton/George C. Scott) also said “Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor pale to insignificance. And I love it. God help me, I do love it so.”

It would be false to say that no soldier thrills at the thought of (or the experience of) killing another human being. I don’t think that all murderers are “insane” either, or that all who HAVE killed while insane (temprarily or otherwise) should be considered “murderers.” We’re too complex, as individuals and as a species, for easy answers.

No, Fritz. it’s the adrenaline rush of war. Life or death. just ask the war gamers locked into their consoles til real death do them part. I’s a high never matched. Ask the jackass star who crashed his Porshe. Life or death is the high or all time. With one really low comedown. You guys just don’t get it. It is AWESOME. And that on-going rush of frayed nerves and constant restlessness is what the syndrome is all about.

Lots of thoughts on war on the strip, yet no one has suggested that this is a comic and not a “blog.” Why do you commenters who blast HOBBES on C&H seem to have a different attitude here?

freeholder1, I’m not sure what part of my comment you’re disagreeing with; our positions aren’t incompatible. The “kill or be killed” adrenaline rush I acknowledge, although I don’t think THAT’S universal either.

@dtroutma; you have said something I didn’t realize that I thought, because I thought it would be socially unacceptable: “NOBODY who has been in real combat is ever again ‘normal’.” I guess it just looks obvious to me.But is it normal not to realize how awful killing is?

Kids are more practical than other people.

A friend of mine once pointed his water pistol at an old man, who promptly started crying. Only later did they learn that the guy was a vet of the Bataan Death March.