According to the Pentagon, 1,367 soldiers lost all or part of their genitals in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2001 and 2013. Bet that’s not something they tell you at the recruiting center.
An Awkward Conversation at the Recruiting Office
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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This should be on the front page of every paper in the country, the top of every news site, etc.
A young hothead who thinks being the military is manly might think twice if there’s a risk of losing his manhood.
At least they can re-up as women.
Wow Ted, I know that the need to write or create cartoons is a kind of pressure, but please stand back a moment, and look how this relates to “what’s happening now”. I can’t say it is funny or really ironic, because it is so lame. Do you really think that most of the people thinking of enlisting have no idea that they could get seriously injured? As far as lose your junk or part of it compared to losing legs, arms, sight or hearing, and living in a wheelchair (like I did), the cartoon is just plain bad. Yeah, it does have a point, but having a point doesn’t redeem it from taking up the space of just about anything else. You’re spreading yourself thin here.
Come on, Ted – I’ve seen a lot of war movies and the hero generally has his head wrapped in a pristine white bandage and a few photogenic scratches or cuts on his face – and if he’s in the hospital, he surrounded by admiring nurses, who seem to have no doubts about his masculinity. I’ve never seen one in which he’s been emasculated ; that’s an entirely new script and not, I’m sure, one of which Donald John Drumpf would approve (if the protagonist weren’t Mexican, but that I can’t imagine)….
Henri