What if other countries mourned their national tragedies the way we do? The United States reads off the names of the dead during annual commemoration ceremonies and builds walls with names. Other countries have far bigger death counts, often due to us, but the scale of the carnage makes it impossible for them to wallow in such niceties.
If Other Nations Mourned Like the U.S.
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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Surely not, Ted – US bombs and shells – and those of its proxies – are released in the name of «human rights» and kill and maim only the guilty. N’est-ce pas ?….
Henri
Funny how the US under the Obama administration was willing to go to war in Syria to save the Syrian people (by dropping bombs on them), but now has so little concern for their well being that proposed limits on refugees from Syria (fleeing bombs) will be limited to 30,000.
Re: “A similar wall in Baghdad … ”
Said similar wall in Baghdad would need to be TWO similar walls in Baghdad.
One wall would (barely) suffice for the war dead but another would be needed for those who died as a result of US sanctions.
The sanctions dead are in major part the responsibility of the 1993-2001 Clinton (cringe-producing, self-proclaimed) dual presidency. Half of the sanctions dead were children but, not to worry, America’s first female***, Secretary of State, M. Albright assured us that the carnage was worth it.
Sure both the child and adult carnage was worth it … if the motive was to terrorize other potentially non-obedient regimes/countries and to pave the way to more carnage.
It has been (essential war crimes) sanctions “24/7/365” around the world since.
——–
*** The tenure of Ms Albright, especially regards this topic, was most significant in that it was shown, without doubt, that murderous sociopathology of those at “the highest levels of US government” was not gender specific.
We really need to eliminate the gender bias against women in this society.
How much recognition does Madeline Albright get for her vicious attitude of approval of the murder of children to achieve a political end? one that puts a great many men in comparison to shame .
It’s a great, classic-Ted, foreign policy cartoon. Even in the midst of the whirlwind, you continue to produce quality. You should be proud.
I love the color. But I really love the use of white in this one. It really makes the color pop, and, you know, it’s fresh, since you’ve been doing so much color lately.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks, @aaron! I won’t say what the original title was going to be before a friend talked me down.
withdrawn: “so much color”
should have said: “all-color”
“…it’s fresh, since you’ve been doing all-color lately.”
cheers
Just read the SPUTNICK Trump toadstool toon.
Those Mario shrooms look to be based on Aminita Muscaria. A hallucinogenic shroom used during certain Shamanic practices.
It is also rumored to have influenced various worldwide religions.
Stormy actually complimented Trump not only on size but also on the resemblance to a consciousness-raising natural drug.
“So how did nature equip men to solve the adaptive problem of other men impregnating their sexual partners? The answer, according to Gallup, is that their penises were sculpted in such a way that the organ would effectively displace the semen of competitors from their partner’s vagina, a well-synchronized effect facilitated by the “upsuck” of thrusting during intercourse.
Specifically, the coronal ridge offers a special removal service by expunging foreign sperm. According to this analysis, the effect of thrusting would be to draw other men’s sperm away from the cervix and back around the glans, thus scooping out the semen deposited by a sexual rival.”
So Trump has a penis evolved for breeding. Stormy seems to ONLY have sex with men who shave their crotches. Porn star it figures.
At no point does she take responsibility for “being the other woman”.
That brings up the idea she may actually have been whoring for money. She received nothing form the consensual sex except a promise to potentially be on the apprentice.
An episode of Ray Donovan had a porn star having sex for money but getting pissed when the guy was filming. Her husband agreed to it.
Isn’t it the same as getting paid to fuck for public consumption?
How much did Stormy charge Trump for the bang sessions? 10k, 20k?
Funny thing is this fits with the cartoonist accusation article Rall is running.
How many wars has America had since 1776?
The U.S. Has Been At War 222 Out of 239 Years. This morning, I discovered an interesting statistic, America Has Been At War 93% of the Time – 222 Out of 239 Years – Since 1776, i.e. the U.S. has only been at peace for less than 20 years total since its birth.
Nice, Glick.
Very readable and right to the point.
During the end credits of Battle Royale 2, not as good as the first, the list of US invasions ran.
Japanese had some balls.
As for the name reading congress does that to have things entered into the minutes. Many politicians will have after hours speeches just to have that LEGAL record.
Total bullshit but politics all the same.
I had a similar list of US invasions in The Anti-American Manifesto.
Rall they beat you by seven years.
Haven’t watched it in a while ( Did not know they were books (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Royale_(novel))
Battle Royale II (2003)
Batoru rowaiaru II: Chinkonka (original title)
The Prime Minister: Hey, teacher, what a mess, huh? Who do you think fired those missiles? We finally pissed that country off! I just got a call from their president. They’re going to attack in 12 hours. What the hell’s going on with your class? What are you waiting for? So what if a dozen kids die, it doesn’t matter! Fire a missile and blow up the whole damned island!
Sensei: You really mean that?
The Prime Minister: You surprise me. I thought you were a full-fledged adult who’d cross the line a long time ago. You do understand, there are only two sides, the winners and losers.
[Riki looks down then starts simmering]
The Prime Minister: Which side are you on? Fight with that country for justice and freedom…
Sensei: [interrupting] Cut the crap, you murderer!
[throws chair]
The Prime Minister: Huh, what?
Sensei: Half a century ago, that country compared ours to a 12-year-old. How old does that make that country now? If any country pisses it off, it just bombs them. You call that adult behavior?
The Prime Minister: Listen, the whole world’s rallied by that country.
Sensei: And who made that choice?
The Prime Minister: So what the hell are you doing here?
[Riki unzips his coat and reveals his necklace]
The Prime Minister: I see. Too bad. I had hopes for you.
[Riki looks furious. Prime Minister removes his glasses then we get a close up of him]
The Prime Minister: Exercising my full power as Prime Minister, I call upon the armed forces. Prepare for battle immediately. Before that country launches its missiles. I want every last terrorist and Nanahara Shuya, *dead*.
Lieutenant Anjo: Attention! Salute!
[Riki furiously throws an object at the Prime Minister’s screen. Prime Minister ducks for safety. Riki walks away]
IMDB Review
BR 2 never finds the errie tone of the first film or novels. I contribute a great deal of this to the “over the top” acting and lack of serious character development.
What Battle Rotaye 2 does manage to do is pack much more violence into it’s running time, and slowly build a very politically incorrect message. I don’t agree with the political philosophy here, but I must give Fukasaku credit for having some seriously big balls to make this. Then again, he was dying from cancer so he never had to personnaly face any responsibility. There are many pro Al Quida/ Anti U.S. things going on here, and he hits you over the head with it. From destroying 2 twin towers to living in the mountains of Afghanistan! There is a speech given twice about all the countries the U.S. has bombed (and I agree that America has opened it’s self up to global hatred), and it’s suggested that Japan goes along with the U.S. cause so many other countries do. The later being Japan’s downfall. There is also some anti Israel jabs in a scene showing the children of what looks exactly like West Bank. There is mention of victims of terrorism, but even these characters are easily won over to the side of the terrorist.
This is strong stuff, and I commend Fukasaku for giving me pause to think a little harder about how I stand on global issues. No matter how silly I keep telling myself this film is…..it’s one of the most subversive films ever directed toward capitalism.
I just saw the Australian War Memorial in an episode of Rake.
It is beautiful when they add the Poppies.
https://www.echo.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Prince-Harry-war-memorial.jpg
But why the French flag?
To honor Henri.
«But why the French flag?» iIt’s not – but why reveal your ignorance publicly ?…
Henri
Is it the Freetown Christiana flag?
Isn’t it, though? It looks like the French tricolour, not ours, despite that panel being supposedly about Russia. I could, of course, pretend that you’re just ignorant about your own nation’s flag. 🙂
«I could, of course, pretend that you’re just ignorant about your own nation’s flag.» No need for me to pretend, my dear Gospodin Adamov, that you’re just ignorant about the difference between vertical and horizontal panels in a flag, as you obviously are, just as you are equally obviously an ignorant troll….
Henri
PS : My nation’s flag looks entirely different, but that’s really none of your concern….
Projecting much? 🙂
On the off chance you’re not just trolling, though, look at the flag again.
«On the off chance you’re not just trolling, though, look at the flag again.» On the off chance, my dear Gospodin Adamov, that besides being a stupid troll, you are also blind, here an image of the French flag. Perhaps you could convince someone with better visual acuity than you possess to explain the difference between the above and the flag in Ted’s cartoon ? Удачи !…
Henri
Thanks. Since you presumably do have better visual acuity (my eyes are pretty bad, that much is true), could you please tell me whether those are horizontal or vertical stripes? https://c8.alamy.com/comp/CBF5NK/french-flag-fifth-avenue-nyc-CBF5NK.jpg
«… could you please tell me whether those are horizontal or vertical stripes?» Given your general ignorance, my dear Gospodin Adamov, it hardly comes as a surprise that you fail to grasp the notion of frame of reference, which in the case of banners and flags, is the flag pole. But since you seem to enjoy revealing your ignorance publicly, no harm done…. 😉
Henri
Now look at the flag in the lower right panel of the comic again, and compare it to the one in the image I linked. Pay special attention to the tip of the flag pole in the cartoon. That, and the position that the cartoon flag is in there, is the key to the problem.
As a sidenote, even if the flag in the cartoon had vertical panels as you had asserted earlier (though it clearly does not – relative to the flag pole), it would’ve been the Serbian flag, despite the context being that of Russia. The Russian flag is white-blue-red.
And sorry for assuming you were from France, by the way.
Oops – I meant that you asserted they were horizontal rather than vertical, of course, while actually it appears to be the other way around.
In any case, I certainly see no shame in publicly displaying my (indeed, very substantial) ignorance. How else would I learn as much as I do every day? More people should honestly admit their ignorance instead of pretending to be smart, I’d say. Would avoid a lot of completely unnecessary problems that way, not to mention get the enjoyment one naturally gets from conversations about various trivial and serious matters.
«As a sidenote, even if the flag in the cartoon had vertical panels as you had asserted earlier»
…
«Oops – I meant that you asserted they were horizontal rather than vertical, of course, while actually it appears to be the other way around.»
It would seem, my dear Gospodin Adamov, that not only are you unable to distinguish between horizontal and vertical panels, despite being uncertain, you are also compelled to lie about what others have said. Nowhere did I make an assertion about the arrangement of panels – or, for that matter, of colours – of the French or Russian flags, I merely suggested that you look yourself, or, given your impaired vision, get someone else to look and explain to you what they see….
«In any case, I certainly see no shame in publicly displaying my (indeed, very substantial) ignorance. … More people should honestly admit their ignorance instead of pretending to be smart, I’d say.»
Alas, my dear Gospodin Adamov, a glance at this thread and your comments on the flags of various nations suffices to show that your publically reveliation of your, as you admit, «very substantial» ignorance, was inadvertent, while your «pretending to be smart» was intentional…. 😉
Henri
“It’s not – but why reveal your ignorance publicly ?…”
Perhaps you have forgotten, but this is where we started. You said the flag being discussed is not the French flag. Then, presumably to support your position, you pointed to the difference between horizontal and vertical panels. Perhaps I shouldn’t have assumed that your second statement had anything to do with the first one, though.
«You said the flag being discussed is not the French flag. Then, presumably to support your position, you pointed to the difference between horizontal and vertical panels.» I realise your grasp of English is poor, my dear Gospodin Adamov (admittedly, my grasp of Russian is worse, I’ve forgotten everything I once knew), but perhaps you could find someone with sufficient grasp of that language and your own to explain to you that, just as I pointed out above, «[n]owhere did I make an assertion about the arrangement of panels – or, for that matter, of colours – of the French or Russian flags, I merely suggested that you look yourself»….
I realise that you are not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but perhaps you have sufficient insight to realise that your continuing failure to accept that your claim about the flag Ted drew was incorrect has become just a tad tiresome ?… 😉
Henri
So you are saying that I am wrong and that you are *not* actually saying that I’m wrong about the topic which we are discussing, in the same post? I admit, my grasp of English, as well as of basic logic, is certainly insufficient for me to wrap my head around that one. Tragically, all people I know are even more deficient in that regard.
«I admit, my grasp of English, as well as of basic logic, is certainly insufficient for me to wrap my head around that one.» I fear, my dear Gospodin Adamov, that it is far more likely that your head has been wrapped around a telephone pole than around logic or the English language…. 😉
Henri
Contrary to popular opinion, the world did not change on 9/11. Rather, some fat, dumb, and happy Americans got a wakeup call. Too bad they didn’t listen.
I wouldn’t mind the usual recitation of the 9/11 dead, if we also took the time to read out the names of the 40,000 Americans who die because of inadequate health care, or those who OD because of the pharmaceutical industry drug-pushers, or the civilian victims of our drone strikes. Then we could move on to those killed by our bombs in Yemen, or because they were homeless, or in mass shootings, or by Israel in Palestine. The United States finds countless ways to kill its citizens and others each year through neglect or deliberate policy, and if you tallied the numbers up, it’d be in the hundreds of thousands each year.