Good grief. No wonder irony is a lost art in this country.
The outrage over this cartoon is exactly -- and I do mean exactly -- the same as the stupidly incomprehensible outrage over the "racism" in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Most educated people know that Twain's work was anti-racist; he set out to illustrate racism and to condemn it with biting, vicious, and blatantly obvious sarcasm. He accomplished his goal so very well that the perpetually humor-impaired are still "offended" by his work, lo these many years later.
Same thing with this cartoon. Rumsfeld's (and the administration he serves) multiple demands upon an overworked military and his callous disregard for the difficulties faced by military people as a result, is exactly the point that is being illustrated. The point is that the current administration is demanding too much of an overworked military, and of the people in it. In this sense, the cartoon is extremely pro-military, and the slings and arrows of "outraged" military supporters are pathetically misplaced.
Instead of being offended at how anti-military the cartoonist is, you might try being offended at the thing that is actually offensive: the callous mistreatment of troops which are severely overworked and continuously called upon to do the impossible by political authorities who have neither understanding of nor regard for the thinly-stretched condition of our military and the terrible burden that overstretching puts upon military families.
You might try being offended at the completely ridiculous and painfully obvious fact that ordinary troops are being sent overseas for longer periods, to do more diverse tasks, and with less support than they have at nearly any other point in our nation's history.
You might even turn some of the stupidly wasted energy you've spent decrying the MSM for publishing this, and direct it instead to our elected officials who obviously believe that a severely truncated and underfunded military is nonetheless capable of fighting on multiple fronts throughout the world, whenever and wherever the politicians decide the troops need to go today and without any regard for the condition of those troops. If you support our troops, you might consider protesting the over-use and under-funding of those troops.
But no, we're not going to do that. Because if we did that, it might have the effect of, you know, encouraging our leaders to either demand less of the military, or give the military the tools it needs to do the multiple jobs the politicians demand it to do.
Instead, we're going to stomp and hold our collective breath until the MSM apologizes for so clearly, cleverly, and sarcastically condemning the very point that offends us.
Brilliant.
pax
