Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 12, 2013
Transcript:
Roland: "About to debrief squad leader." So what's the state of play in Helmand, Sergeant? Soldier: It's a challenge, sir. We've tried every strategy, from mowing the grass to government in a box to arming the local warlords... None of it's worked out. There's a reason Afghanistan is called the graveyard of empires. Roland: "Soldier: blah, blah, blah." But we're winning, right? Soldier: Well, again...
Mike31g over 11 years ago
An alternative (i.e not 2012) rerun:http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1991/07/04Congresswomen Davenport talks with the refugeesMike
Make Mine Marvel over 11 years ago
Global War On Terror
pelican47 over 11 years ago
He called a faux journalist “Sir”?
wcorvi over 11 years ago
Remember in Woody Allen “Bananas”, he asks the CIA guy which side we were fighting for. CIA guy says we couldn’t decide, so we’re fighting for BOTH sides.
American Foreign Policy
rmacprivate over 11 years ago
Afghanistan a major grower of Poppies used in the production of Heroin. Heroin being replaced by crack and cocaine and meth. Which are being produced by Mexican and South American drug cartels.With a little manipulation we could end up with a whole new meaning to the “war on drugs”.Could be interesting to watch the Afghanistan drug producers fight the drug cartels for market share.
Packratjohn Premium Member over 11 years ago
“Hopenchangey Hubshi " ? Really? Is that dialogue? Constructive criticism? There seems to be an unwritten rule (or maybe it’s written somewhere; I really don’t know) that if you can come up with a clever “put-down” nickname, you win some points in some game to which only you know the rules. Can’t we at least pretend to be grown up? So there, I’ve said it…. neener, neener…
sbchamp over 11 years ago
Political rant in 3…2…
QuiteDragon over 11 years ago
“…what is a Hubshi?”
Means a person from Ethiopia. Tucci is using it as a disingenuous way to call Obama the n-word without actually saying it.cripplious over 11 years ago
I just highlight and right click copy/paste to address bar
Greg Johnston over 11 years ago
Susan – surely you could copy and paste the URL. In many browsers, double clicking on the URL, then a right click will select the URL and bring up a contextual menu to “go to ”. Or drag-select the URL, then right click to either copy or to bring up the “go to” option.
Greg Johnston over 11 years ago
Most soldiers would address civilians generally as sir or m’am, because they’re trained to be respectful. Quite aside from the fact a lot of them would probably lean to conservative/Faux News perspectives anyway; the flag-waving ultra-nationalism sells well with many young men, especially those who enlist. More generally, many of those soldiers treat political antics and concerns as “above their pay grade” – and are more concerned with the day-to-day of staying alert, staying alive, and getting the job done. Of course, in this case, we have a soldier offering up a nuanced assessment of the situation, which doesn’t fit the Faux “rah-rah” perspective, so that’s the point of the gag – Hedley has no patience for nuance, just like his viewers/followers, and just tells the story he was going to anyway: Boom-boom. Terrorists dead. We win!
William Bednar Premium Member over 11 years ago
Yeah, mowing the grass never works. Especially in the middle of a desert!! Not much grass in the desert! The lawn mowers just kick up a lot of dust and sand, blinding and angering the local warlords!
Beleck3 over 11 years ago
at least the 1% are getting rich off of the GWOT. and that 34 million dollar base they just finished in Afghanistan, which won’t be used. at least teh Job Creators are getting rich, not that it trickles down. only urine trickles down from the Job Creators/1%. but when you vote Right or Left/Bush or Obama, that is what you get, peed on. that is why they call the 99% peons. lol
rroush Premium Member over 11 years ago
Typical Fox News. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
David Huie Green LoveJoyAndPeace over 11 years ago
“The Taliban was the good guys back then, wby the heroic resistance-guys? — We supported them and we armed them”-I think the Taliban moved in after the locals drove out the USSR.
rkozakand over 11 years ago
mow the grass??!I doubt that they have lawns The only thing they would mow would be hay.but lawns are pretty useless, really.
todyoung over 11 years ago
OK, just buy more heroin.
kaffekup over 11 years ago
“Mow the grass” = cut them all down with sheer military might. No lawns harmed.
michaelyukyuk over 11 years ago
To Jack Butler: Dude, You need to look up the definition of “irony”; you will find one usage defined as “frustration of hope”. So, Sisterdame is closer than you are. Ironic, huh?
Ryan Plut over 11 years ago
Obama’s right on target here: Get our troops out, even the ‘advisers’, and let A’stan stand or fall on its own. Tough love. Shrubby never should have put us there in the first place. He knew the history of the place (graveyard of empires) and did it anyways. What a moron. (‘moron’ has a specific IQ definition… look it up).The Yew Ess of Aayy has NO legitimate interests in that country. If we want little brass teapots we can get ‘em from India.’War on Drugs’ you say? Let ‘em produce whatever… It’s our job to stop the drugs at OUR border.
Newshound41 over 11 years ago
Is Karzai worth dying for?
kaffekup over 11 years ago
BDS – Barack Derangement Syndrome?
caligula over 11 years ago
The Taliban in general still ARE the good guys to a certain extent in the Tribal areas. It’s their leaders that sheltered OBL after he declared war on us, not them, and despite his leading them into a massacre at Tora Bora, many ARAB Taliban feel the same way. To the Afghani and some Pakistani Talib however he’s seen as more than a bit of a failure. At this point they’re fighting us because they disagree with us, not because of OBL, and being largely warlike to begin with their method of disagreement is to shoot at you.
The Taliban aren’t fundamentally terrorists, they just have much MUCH looser rules of engagement than we do, and consider civilian administrators and instruments of a hostile government to be legitimate targets, same as we did during WWII.
caligula over 11 years ago
No, it’s not possible, not without killing the entire local Muslim population, including the Pakistani’s and Iranians. The Indians would love it if we tried however.
krisjackson01 over 11 years ago
I said it in 2002 and I’ll say it again: the war will end when we pull out, “our allies” flee with our money, and the country collapses in flames. Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and the next ones. We shall not learn.
tigerchik32 over 11 years ago
Which one was that?
tigerchik32 over 11 years ago
Because that would make sense, and that is a concept foreign to most conservatives.
Hawthorne over 11 years ago
“The Taliban was the good guys back then, we supported them and we armed them… That is ironic, isn’t it?
Not really – if you look at the recent history, you see that the US has embraced a good many tinpot dictators and other assorted despots.
You might call it a habit, but I think to be accurate, you’d have to call it a vice :-(
Hawthorne over 11 years ago
You know, it’s quite possible to win in Afghanistan."
Well, I suppose you are in good company. Alexander thought so, the Brits thought so, the Russians thought so …
I don’t think so. I think the result will be exactly the same for the US. and I think we can’t afford the resources to prove it.
Attacking Afghanistan, or dealing with them in any way beyond ordinary trade is foolhardy at best.
Hawthorne over 11 years ago
“You know, it’s quite possible to win in Afghanistan.”
Because warmondering is more profitable.