Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for November 21, 2010

Now, listen, you young guys. I’m only going to say this once. This is “WW 11”; and this is “WW II” expressed with Roman numerals. Got it? There’s a big difference!

World War one hundred and eleven is gonna be a doozy.

Avoid the confusion. Just call it dubya dubya eye eye.

Your service is appreciated, no matter how you do the math.

Thank you Sisyphos!

Thanks to our WW 2 - WW II vets out there! Love the humor!

I am currently in the “South West Asia” theater of operations in the decade old Global War on Terrorism or “G-WOT” as we say, - which sounds like we are conserving enegy “Gee - Watt” or maybe it does mean “Gee - What?” - Soldiers/Marines/Airmen I am working with were in 5th grade when 9/11 happened !!!

He got Inspected, infected, detected and neglected…..

And we didn’t get to sit on the group W bench

WWII makes some great viewing on tv & DVDs for us kids! you’d think the world would’ve learned something from it, but apparently not…sigh!

lessee, March 2011 minus 84 years = 1927. He was 15 when he was inducted? Probably one of those guys who started shaving at 11…

I thought it meant World War 3. 0, 1, 10, 11, 100, etc.

Iran and most of the Arab nations were with the AXIS powers in WWII. Are you sure that WWII ended in 1945?

I thought at first the shirt read, “WWW Vet”, and thought, gee, I should get one of them!

During Desert Storm I was on SSBN deterrent patrol. I reassured my Mom: “Don’t worry. If I get involved in any combat you will certainly know about it!” Missed the whole thing– started after we got underway, over before we got back.

“Oh, I ain’t gonna study war no more. I ain’t gonna study war. Now how in the heck can I wash my neck if I ain’t gonna study war.”

WW II is not expressed in Roman numerals but in two large ’ i ‘s

Guessing the younger guy would still have been in basic and learning which end was the business end of a rifle on June 6, 1942 (The Longest Day). Of course he would have been around for plenty of action, Battle of the Bulge, Iwo Jima and on and on. Our middle school makes a veteran’s quilt every year. A nice tribute and amazing to look at the names, dates and services and think of all the history represented there.

I get it! I think my grandfather was stationed at “Base Two”.

Nebulous, I like your thinking. So when will WW 1011 start? (binary jokes are always a riot)

Snowqueen, you rock. I’m trying to come up with a “Base 16 ” joke but someone seems to have put a hex on me….

he must have lied about his age as he would have been 16 in 1942,a year older than me and i didnt get called till 1945, but some guys did that and got in anyway

A real life reply…REALLY

I think poking fun at WWII vets as if they don’t have their faculities is disrespectful and totally inaccurate. If this was a real conversation…so what..doing a cartoon about it implies, on the cartoonist’s part, some universal truth to that transpired. Prefacing the cartoon with “a real conversation…really…” doesn’t excuse the cartoonist from making the statement. This cartoon reflects the faculties of the cartoonist more than it does those who fought and died for the right for this cartoonist to say such disrespectful things.

Showing WWII vets as buffoons is the height of contempt for those who gave so much, and doing so during Thanksgiving adds insult to injury.

@eardroppings Really????????When were you inducted? GAC

I remember being out on Mameluke Thrust with 2/7 in ‘69 sitting on the lines one evening with my little grunt friends and a discussion of draft versus volunteer came up. A young lance corporal said to me after a few minutes of chit chat about the heat and the dust and Mr Charles and the skeeters and the lifers and no water and one c-rat a day for the last three days and behind hanging out of utility trousers and the joke of “flak” jackets and deuce gear and Army chow and, well, some of you know …

The PFC says to me, “You mean to tell me you actually volunteered for this?”

Put in my place, I was. Yessir. In my place. At least we were regulars (even the draftees were regulars) and not 4th Division.

I also was a volunteer, AF, in Vietnam in 1970, but I was a REMF, an aircraft electronics repairman. Still a volunteer but then in the Army in 1976 I spent the most miserable winter ever, in the field, from late Nov thru Feb, cold, we like to froze our…off. But then over XMAS it thawed. Then we were in mud up to my waist-6’3” and all of our trucks, along with all our radars and missles(HAWK) sank in the mud.It was an experience that I never ever wanted to repeat. And I had thought that I had gotten cold,in the AF, TDY in Nome AK in Jan 1971. Less than 30 days after returning from Vietnam. Living in GP med tents, in Nome, in Jan. All in all, I much prefer warm temps.

Actually, OLDDOG82, the 83 year old gent (84 next March) would have been inducted two months after his fifteenth birthday. Or is that intended to be mental floss?

I don’t think this toon is disrespectful at all.

The guys that fought WW2 were volunteers, draftees, factory workers, & just plain folks on rationing, all doing what they could to eliminate evil. Some really wanted to be there, some didn’t but went anyway. But if you’ve ever been in the military, you know what these guys are talking about.

And while we’re counting, let’s not forget Korea - it was hell for those who were there.

Reid

Just like JohnyDiego, but in 66- my “wisdom” in enlisting was revealed at the induction center when a Marine DI came in and announced that one line of draftees was now “the few, the brave, the Marines- all dropping a load in their pants”. My neighbor is a WW II vet, a number of friends are, and they’re still around. What I find interesting is that they all agree that both ‘Nam vets, and our current Afghan and Iraq vets have gotten a much rawer deal than they did. They fought enemies that declared themselves, not an enemy that we invented and declared, based on lies.

Hey ,baslimthebegger, if you think the day at the induction center was long, you were lucky! The two months in basic training were probably the longest “day” I had…in 1968.

I love todays strip, and thank all the vets - past and present - for their service.

DTROUTMA – I think everybody agrees that the ‘Nam and Al Queda war vets have been short-changed, expecially those whose wounds require special treament and therapy. There’s always money for the companies that make the weapons, but the vets needs are considered unnecessary additions to the deficit.

You weren’t out-gunned on the battlefied by the enemy, but you were in the halls of Congress by the lobbyists.

Night-Gaunt49: it is also worth noting that WW2 was the last war we actually won and the last war we financed with wartime sacrifices by the public. Since then, we’ve fought wars with money borrowed from our children, and haven’t actually won any of them (even the so-called “victory” of Gulf War I degenerated into a twelve-year blockade of the country before the invasion in ‘03). Coincidence? I think not…

I can’t believe people actually think that the Vet commenting about WW eleven versus WW 2 was being serious? It’s call “pulling somebody’s leg” which is traditionally done with a straight face.

I hope these comments come up when I share this with my dear family and friends. They are priceless!

So WWI is WWone and WWII is WWeleven? Got it!

Can’t wait for WW one hundred and one.

I thought it was really WW11. As long as I can remember(i’m 64) we have been actively engaged killing people somewhere in the world.

If your character is going to be 84 in March, that means he was born in 1927. He would have been 15 in 1942 and they were not drafting 15 yearolds in 1942.

Nabuquduriuzhur : WWV is the National Bureau of Standards Time and Frequency standard station in Fort Collins CO …. :) With any luck people will smarten up and stop being so willing to kill and be killed in the name of ideology, and we can end this war silliness forever. Seems pretty unlikely since people on ALL sides of the ideologies all seem willing to keep killing and dying …. when will we all get smart?

If that vet will be 84 next March, he would have just turned 15 when he was inducted. Since it was the longest day of his life, he apparently didn’t volunteer but was drafted. The numbers don’t seem to jive.

If that vet will be 84 next March, he would have just turned 15 when he was inducted. Since it was the longest day of his life, he apparently didn’t volunteer but was drafted. The numbers don’t seem to jive.

I said it above.

“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent” – Salvor Hardin, Mayor of Terminus, in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation

My old Dad was MSgt C.H.Roberts USMC, 1934-1966. He and Rommie had just moved into the brand-new Kaneohe housing in 8/41. Retired while I was in Danang the first time. Thanks to all who got it right. We DO need to do better.

Absolutely right pbarnrob. Every one of the men in my father’s generation of our family served in the military. I also served, though I was still in school when you went to Danang. My stepson and my son-in-law also were in the military. Do we love war? No way, but there will always be other countries that want to knock us down. Because of that, there will always be the need for a military.

http://pvtmurphy.com/Prints/The%20Soldier.htm

You mean, they had idiots back then, that couldn’t read Roman numerals? I thought that only happened with today’s public education system.

@JohnnyDiego, when my Dad was drafted (during the Korean War, 1950), they just took every 3rd draftee for the Marines. Dad said one fellow who got picked just sat down on the floor and cried.

puddleglum, why does everybody always forget the Bosnian war? We one it against a well funded modern army in the middle of Europe. We won them handsomely. We won it without losing even one American in combat. We stopped almost unbelievably large and blatant massacres of civilians. I wish Muslims the world over would remember that it was the Muslim civilians who were being massacred in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Americans came to their rescue. I don’t know why Muslims don’t give us credit for that, unless they only care about Arabic Muslims…

@Varnes, because European Muslims are not really Muslims? Because we were too effective in meeting our objectives and then stopping, just as in Gulf War I?

when i went into the navy at the height of Nam, the draftees were on the other side of the hall. a marine master-gunner came out, counted out the first 12 in line, and welcomed them into the US Marine Corp. youŕe right. a couple did start crying. sorta like a death-sentence, back then.

Late this week… Little to speak… Lame little strip… Just a little blip… Next week will be bright… Full of clever insights… Leave the aged alone… And stay in the zone… Of political strife,,, And the non sequitur’s of life.

there was no world war 2, there was only world war 1 continued