I guess I didn’t mean satire of general anti-war sentiment. But there are some who made disparaging remarks about Tillman, and I’d understood this cartoon to be a criticism (satire) of that. “…falsely believed Bush’s war against Iraq and Afghanistan had something to do with 9/11” (emphasis mine) doesn’t make any sense if it’s meant to be serious. From what I can tell based on Air America radio, most liberals criticize Bush for allocating resources away from Afghanistan to use in Iraq.
To me, the cartoon is not offensive. Just stupid. And missing any sign of talent.
Other than having the words “Pat Tillman” in it, I don’t see how this cartoon incorporates any facts about Tillman or his term of service. It sure as hell assumes a bunch of tremendously evil stuff about him.
The reality is that he joined up (with his brother) 6 months after 9/11 to help protect our country, not to “kill arabs” and not to invade Iraq “for oil”. Rall just took everything he’s pissed off about and slapped a dead guy around with it. Classy.
Not especially. Being offended takes more energy than I feel that Ted Rall deserves from me.
Never heard of Ted Rall before Scarborough Country on MSNBC last night, and then I only saw the last panel & thought it was merely stupid. Seeing the full strip, I hope I never hear of Ted Rall again unless he’s gotten by Al Qaeda.
Never heard of Ted Rall before but he certainly seems to have got his point across.
If I recall, many relatives of 9/11 victims were offended GWB invoked the names of their loved-ones to launch the war on terror.
Same tactics?
Are you offended by this cartoon?
No, I have other things to worry about.
Just out of curiosity, did this Tillman person explain publicly why he joined the military? I mean obviously it was a response to 9/11 but did he make any specific public statements? If he actually said that he was joining to kill Arabs or for revenge then the cartoon, while crude, is accurate and I don’t have a problem with it. “Died in a uniform” isn’t synonymous with “hero” IMHO.
I am profoundly and deeply embarrassed by this cartoon, and I generally oppose the invasion and occupation of Iraq, primarily for the loss of life involved and lack of compelling reasons to do so. This was a pretty idiotic and feeble attempt at something, although what he was attempting is not at all clear. Most information indicates that al Qaeda was/is in Afghanistan. Pat Tillman was clearly not an idiot. I have heard of no evidence to indicate he was prejudiced/anti-Arab.
That said, the other side in this ridiculously polarizing event also often does or says stuff that embarasses me as an American. Seems likes there are a lot of losers and bozos in the media, public office, etc., and not enough people of integrity and dignity as Mr. Tillman was.
I was going to start a thread myself on this cartoon.
I usually agree with Rall on issues, in principle if not to his degree, but this cartoon is pretty off-base. Tillman was a victim of Bush’s bullshit; plus implying he was racist with no evidence makes it really over the top.
And now the pro-war folks will hold this cartoon up as an example of what the anti-war folks think. Thanks Ted… :rolleyes:
I thought I’d gotten to the point that I found our international temper tantrum and bloodfest to be so offensive that nothing done in the name of criticizing it and the folks who pursue it could offend me.
I was wrong. This cartoon sucks.
It’s like walking up to Ron Kovic and knocking him out of his wheelchair and calling him “baby killer”.
This thread was the first I’ve seen of this cartoon. Uncalled for and contemptible.
Daniel
From what I’ve heard about Pat Tillman, it would be a mistake to describe him as either an idiot or naive.
Tillman, when a freshmen, was under a lot of pressure from his coach to be “red-shirted” to extend his eligibility. He essentially told his coach that he couldn’t do this. He had other things to do in life, and had to finish college in four years.
He did this, too, with a better than 3.8 average.
He then left the Cardinals to enlist with the Rangers. His salary dropped from millions to $18,000 per year. This is not the action of an idiot, or a naive person. If he was either of these things, the tremendous sacrifice he was making financially would have stopped him.
Pat Tillman’s family said he joined because he felt he had to. Let’s just take them at their word.
Its too stupid to be offended by.
That is the real problem here. The passionate left (I’m not saying far left because too many people fit into the description to consider it a fringe group) is so fueled by hatred of Bush that any criticism of him passes as OK, regardless of it’s truth or propriety. Some of us still have a high regard for honesty and integrity (Its why I’m a Democrat) and this kind of stuff makes me ill.
Even Diogenes the Cynic, who has been in full retreat since the OP, still holds to the idea that Tillman was “naive”. There is absolutely no reason to believe that Tillman was naive about anything. He enlisted after 9/11, before Iraq was publicly targeted. Every scrap of available evidence indicates that Tillman knew exactly what he was getting into, and to call him naive is superimposing your beliefs on his motivations. To me, that is stupidity.
I don’t really follow this, but it’s not important. I can’t say I’m personally offended by it, but it’s just plain stupid. Whether you think attacking Afghanistan was right or not, it definitely had something to do with September 11th, and Iraq wasn’t even being discussed publicly at that point so it’s dumb to say Tillman fell for that. The second-to-last panel seems to have Tillman in Iraq, and I’m pretty sure he never served there. Either way, he was killed in Afghanistan, so it seems tangential at best. I have no idea if more civilians than terrorists were killed and I bet Ted Rall doesn’t either.
Is it just me, or does this guy draw like a severely brain-damaged version of Matt Groening?
I might forgive him if he actually did beat the shit out of Family Circus . . .
He did actually serve in Iraq, then went over to Afghanistan. They mention the Iraq duty in passing in this ESPN article
Ah, okay. Thanks, Cheesesteak. Either way, he joined the Army before anything was going on in Iraq, so I think the general point stands.
Funny you should say that, as I was thinking the same thing.
Incidentally, I just heard that this guy will be on The O’Reilly Factor tonight. I’m going to have to catch that.