Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 31, 2014

Nothing ruins a wedding reception like a bunch of storm troopers marching in.

Would-be conquerers should announce their intentions so their victims would have time to prepare and resist.If they don’t, everybody’s forced to rely on hope or readiness.

Did either of them read a newspaper in 1939? Or listen to a radio? Or watch the newsreels in the movie theater?Now I know where the Z – Boys’ cluelessness comes from!

If they met in 39 and planed wedding for after graduation, a 4 year plan could have meant wedding date wasn’t until 43?

Fascism? UCLA? “Water” begone – ias? (See yesterday)Broke.Mox.news (youtubevid) “Hey, nice car – did ya get some tail?”Ding?

I’m guessing that Graduation, and thus the wedding was scheduled for June 1942.

Did Trudeau pick this arc to rerun as a comment on appeasing Putin?

“The Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), as it exists today, began with President Wilson signing the National Defense Act of 1916. Although military training had been taking place in civilian colleges and universities as early as 1819, the signing of the National Defense Act brought this training under single, federally-controlled entity: The Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.”Learn something new every day.http://arotc.gmu.edu/why-rotc/army-rotc-history/

This is brilliant and shows why GT is an all-time master.

These classics demonstrate just how fluid the characters’ ages can be. Let’s assume they got married after the war, waited a few years before they had Zonker. He was born in 1955, and would be 20 for this strip, and……..er………WAY too old now! So of course there must’ve been a reboot or fifty along the way.

You’re right. Americans regarded Hitler as a European problem only, and were mainly concerned with keeping the U.S. out of the fighting. As late as the fall of 1941 – after Germany’s invasions of Poland and Russia, the air war over England and the fall of France – congress voted to renew the draft by only one vote, 203 to 202. FDR recognized Fascism as a threat to the world in 1939, but couldn’t do or even propose anything overt because of this lack of popular support.

@fbjsr to@dukedoug " If we had attacked in 37 or 38 and defeated Hitler would be people be saying FDR saved a billion lives or would they be saying what did he do that for? Hitler had a horse drawn army he wasn’t a threat to anyone. FDR is war criminal. Think about that before you condemn".Good point.Hindsight can see all the flaws in either direction.The future is more fuzzy for some reason..Hitler might have choked on a chicken bone before he did the evil he did. (But he didn’t.).Stalin might have not wiped out his officers,which would have left Russia more able to resist any attacks and convinced him to stay at home. (But he did.).Someone might have convinced Hitler his attitudes were all wrong and he would never find inner peace as long as he hated and plotted. (But they didn’t.).Which leaves the question: How much uncertainty is enough to not take preventative action against suspected future aggressors? 10%? 25%? 80%?.If action kills thousands but inaction risks millions, how often should action be taken?If inaction kills thousands but action risks millions, how often should inaction be preferred?.One thing should be certain: Uncertainty due to ignorance makes best choices much harder to make.

Very true.

If he was in ROTC in ‘39 and didn’t know war was coming, he was as stoned as the modern Zonker.

Much is explained.

Time line for the strip. Earlier in the arc, Mr. Harris said they’ve been married for 32 years. The strip ran in 1975. It means they got married in 1943. They may have met as freshmen in 1939 and gotten married in 1943 when they graduated and Mr. H got shipped out to the war.-As for FDR, the biggest obstacle he faced was the isolationists at home. In 1936, he gave the famous “I Hate War” speech, in which he talked about his desire for peace. But if one reads the speech carefully, he is clearly warning America it has to be prepared for probable future war.

Delusionism clearly runs in the Harris family.

Thanks, RR, I was on the way down to post that, with the caveat that Hitler had and used Stuka dive bombers.

.Russia did not have to invade Poland. Hitler offered Russia half of Poland if Russia would not interfere when Germany invaded Poland.

Much of America supported the Nazi ideas — one reason we sent the Jews home to certain death when they tried to come in as refugees. There was a lot of anti-Semitism in the US as well as Europe.

@DoctorDan“I think that it’s clearly better to try to understand, even if that understanding ultimately doesn’t make any difference, than it is to not have tried when understanding would have made a difference. Again, do you disagree?

I think one of our responsibilities as citizens is to make ourselves as knowledgeable about local, national and world happenings as time permits, so we can make good choices when we vote. Again, do you disagree?

Sometimes, DHG, you seem to enjoy arguing a contrary position solely for the sake of arguing. I don’t think you really disagree with anything I wrote, either last week or today. You spent a lot of time trying to qualify it, but if you actually disagreed, I missed it."""""""""""""""""""""I try and I try.Let me try again: I believe it is good to know what is going on around us. I believe it is essential those entrusted with the safety of our nation and of our service personnel know what is going on around us. I believe many others can and should be allowed to concentrate on what they are actually doing without being made to feel shame for not keeping up with external matters. They — we — can if they wish, but it is optional because without source information, it may not even be true. Secondary sources are biased at best, incorrect too often and bald-faced liars more often than not.I believe Rumsfeld reminded me greatly of Robert McNamara whom we have on tape withholding information from President Johnson and thereby resulting in the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution under false pretenses.Rumsfeld also reminded me of McNamara’s tendency to drive out military officers who didn’t agree with whatever he said.I believe a man does not have to be a threat of world conquest to consider stopping him from reaching his goals. For example, Saddam couldn’t conquer the world with a thousand fission bombs, but he could kill twenty million people with one. Even if the odds were only ten percent that he might do so, those aren’t good odds.I believe if you are right, that needs no comment.I believe if you are wrong, that might deserve dispute.I believe the world faces a time of prosperity we can not imagine if those who wish to fight against it can only be held back and those of destructive cultural upbringing don’t take over physically or culturally.I believe many other things which will come out as circumstances require.I believe some of those beliefs may seem contradictory if not viewed without bias (and some actually may be contradictory)