Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 13, 2011

Isn’t this a rerun? Or does it just seem like one?

Gweedo: I always had the impression a hell of a lot of “normal”, red-blooded males in the military have the ability to focus. Can we hear from a few?

Boys may be boys, but the military should have men. And real men don’t harass their co-workers OR their fellow soldiers. The right attitude is for the teasing and sexual innuendo to STOP.

You people have not been following the storyline. Mel was raped by one of her superior officers and had to heal for awhile before coming back to work…and it is clear it is not easy in that kind of horndog environment..

@gmartin997: Are you saying she picked the wrong career because she’s not a man, or because command rape should be an expected part of the military lifestyle if one is a woman? You ARE aware Mel is a survivor of military rape, right?

GT knows it’s all about carrying out the foreign policy that those who rule by apartheid determine, which is why their leader gets roaring applause from congress, while Obama suffers criticism whenever in any way he puts America first

Not sure why women are in the military.

The only way to stop this is not discriminating against females in the draft. When 50% of soldiers are female, I bet it might be more equal.

rayannina: yes, this is a rerun.

New strips return next Monday.

This is a phenomenon called “Deployment Goggles”

surely commentator is just trying to get a rise out of people.surely that type of thinking is way outmoded.surely he realizes the discrimination of anybody due to race, gender or sexual orientation is a complete waste of a potentially valuable member of society…..not to mention just wrongsurely

@fbjsr:

Would you explain to those of us who are intelligent, educated, knowledgeable what liberals and kumbaya have to do with anything. Is it the opinion of those who drool a billion times more than they think that liberals aren’t in the military?

My son just retired from the Navy and we were discussing the rule against fraternization between officers and enlisted. He related meeting a great gal in a “civilian” situation. They were hitting it off very well together, until conversation revealed he was enlisted, she an officer. The real kicker being she is a fighter pilot!! In today’s military a lot of jobs aren’t what they used to be. Think about how many “pilots” firing rockets and dropping bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq have “desk jobs”— in Nevada!

I realized after deployment to the sandtrap that there are people over there using personals online for “casual encounters”!!!!

For those who have forgotton or didn’t get it in the first place, Mel was raped by a fellow soldier. She’s had to go through extensive therapy to be able to return to the service and serve her country despite the reminders, and she’s constantly reminded by the behavior of those around her. Her trauma is not post, it’s ongoing, but she’s doing her duty anyway.That’s what that woman is doing in the military.

@glkailsik, I used the term military rape so that civilians understand what it is. Rape is currently endemic in the US military with 1 in 3 women being affected by it; but within the military it is usually called “command rape”, and you describe it accurately – pressure from someone in the chain of command. This is not always the source of the rapes or harassment, though. Sometimes it is a coworker, a person in a different unit, or even a civilian contractor. In Mel’s particular case it was command rape.The problem IS systemic throughout the military to the degree that legislation has been repeatedly passed to address it. A support group was also formed some years ago to help military women with this problem, it’s called Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN), their web site is here: http://servicewomen.org/

Two women speak about their experiences on Piers Morgan (CNN): http://cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2011/02/16/piers.female.soldier.abuse.claims.cnn

I was present at the Times Square Veterans For Peace action (seen in this video) where Sandra Lee began talking about her experience. It was heartrending. I am a pretty tough cookie but I couldn’t watch this lady speak without tearing up. This woman’s career and life were destroyed not by an enemy but by a fellow soldier, and the Army has done diddly squat to help her. This is the real deal and it is why many female vets join the antiwar movement after they are discharged.http://youtu.be/bkjWzDWCYhk

Mel’s such a one dimentional character that it will be Tues or Weds before I figure out if this is a rerun. The dialogue usually goes something like: “God I hate men, war would be so much nicer without ’em.”I thought Mel was going to be OK before the deployment when BD was giving her candy hearts, and warning the guys away at the commissary, but I guess she laced up her boots and went back too soon. We all tried to tell her, but did she listen?

@bdaverin: I agree with you wholeheartedly. If those “normal” men were what real men were supposed to be, I would hate men too.

Rerun season again? I guess Trudeau is trying to figure out how to morph the “Sarah Palin Great Email Hunt” and Anthony Weiner stories…

This week is a rerun of the week of February 8, 2010