I used to read Doonesbury every week without fail. Now I can't even bear to look at it, he's become so blatantly anti-American.

I used to read Doonesbury...then it stopped being funny.

Anyway, Garry could go visit Red2Alpha's blog if he wants to learn what a real milblogger bitches about and how he does it.

Thanks for the link to Dadmanly's post. Trudeau does, in fact, suck.

and "Pimp my ride" ? someone spends way to much time watching MTV!!

Sounds like, based on Dadmanly's post, that we should CUT the military budget. No problem with Armor and we "waste more supplies than the Army has". I am all for that. Lets start by stopping the latest waste of money - $80bl to the war effort. Lets apply that to the SCHOOLS in the US rather than fixing what we destroyed.

He used a pickup to pimp his ride with Bronco parts. A Bronco pickup? Did they ever exist? How many years has it been since Ford made Broncos? Has Trudeau ever been west of the Hudson? I'm just asking.

You guys are over-reacting. Trudeau is about the only guy on the left-side of the political spectrum who is spending any time treating soldiers like they are actual people, and not the mindless assholes that we are potrayed as in places like "DailyKOS".

I also think the recent recruiting storyline is actually challenging some of the liberal status-quo.

How about instead of calling him an asshole, you email him and politely tell him what you think.

Kevin: Ah, I see you just pasted the comment you made on Dadmanly's blog here. Does this mean one should post Dadmanly's shredding of your remark here as well?

Yeah Kevin just what this country needs more money wasted on schools!Earth to kevin the problem with our schools is not money,it is the garbage they 're teaching our kids is the problem.When will you left wingers start to face reality that all these schemes you all had going did not work.You teach revisionist history about this country.The constitution is not taught;kids don't even know what it says.Kids don't know geography can't locate a foreign country on a map.But boy you can get em' to a protest really fast!!You teach them destructive and degenrate bahavior in schools in kindergarten and first grade but they can't do a math problem,can't spell,not old or mature enough to hold a job but you nitwits say they can get an abortion at 12 and 13!How in the hell did you all come to such a dumb conclusion as this?!What I just mentioned in this post is the truth.Take it or leave it!At least with the military the American people know they are for the most part getting their money's worth.Sadly,that can't be said about our public schools.

I love it...all the people who said how they used to 'read Doonesbury without fail' even though neither his humor or politics have changed in 35 years. Spare me.

He actually puts soldiers in his comic (probably the only strip to consistently do so other than Beetle Bailey) and the right-wing still thinks he's a jerk. Whatever you say about him, his leftie audience still reads his strip and - gasp - might actually think about the soldiers in Iraq for one second of their hippy day.

But, whatever, it's more fun to attack him. It's very productive and positive.

Ummm... Ed, the minor problem with your complaint is that it's soldiers in Iraq who are responding - it ain't about a wing.

They don't need any has-been cartoonist to speak for them.

It's a few soldiers in Iraq responding...not ALL the soldiers. I'm sure there are more than a few who like the Doonesbury cartoons as well.
And, yes they DO need somebody to speak for them...not even a tiny percentage of Americans go to the milblogs, and many read the comics in the paper, while their eyes glaze over at the news. Any venue that tells about of soldiers in Iraq is a postitive.
And c'mon, Trudeau's not a has-been. He's in hundreds and hundreds of papers, has dozens of books out. It's like when the left wing calls Rush L. a fatbody. Like it or not, Trudeau is not a has-been, and Rush isn't fat (anymore). Saying it doesn't make it so.

Ed

If Trudeau wants to get the words of the MilBloggers in Iraq out to the public he can do so by pasting their url's into his strips. He's not - he's fabricating an imaginary MilBlogger who conveys Trudeau's view of the war to the public. I'll stand corected on the 'has-been' comment, his idealogy is 'has-been' but his syndication seems strong. So yes, every day thousands of his readers are thinking about soldiers - imaginary ones.

This should clarify the point of the title and the very first line in the post above. Milbloggers exist because we're tired of the Garry Trudeau's of this world 'speaking for us'.

Enter "From the Front" in the search window here and get to know a few more of them. I link all I find, regardless of ideology, etc.

Good points...still, imaginary soldiers or not, his strips bring the subject of soldiers in Iraq to the table, and that's important.

Any curious reader of his strip is likely to actually do five minutes of research and maybe find a real Milblog or two, that - without seeing the strip in the first place - they never would have otherwise been motivated enough to find. Then, they can read the 'other side' as well.

I think Ed's right on this.

Greyhawk, did you bother to email your idea about mil blogs URLs? I think you're being reactionary instead of using your position to actually influence something. Quit playing to the base, and reach out to people.

Hey Kris,
Thanks for sending readers from the Doonesbury site, even if it was only 40 visitors.

Make that 41.
Hey guys, interesting discussion you've got going on here. I just wanted to make a quick point: Trudeau actually did spend a fair amount of time in Iraq and Kuwait during the first Gulf War, much of that hanging out with- and producing cartoons about- US soldiers in the field. He gave the war and its soldiers extensive coverage, and even at one point gave over the space his strip occupies in hundreds of newspapers around the world to strips about the war by a young GI he'd met there.

I haven't heard of him going back this time, or we might have seen some real milblogs on the strip, but he does have experiences of the last war to his credit. Props to all you guys over there, sorry if you don't feel like you're being represented. I think most of us don't, most of the time. T'was ever thus.

For the most part, I think kudos to Trundeau for giving Iraqi soldiers any exposure at all, although he probably does have a serious left slant on them.

For Lisa's edification, most American schools do teach the use of spaces between sentences.

Lisa,

I'm always confused when people launch into generalized attacks on the public schools. Some public schools are bad, some are good. Some students are bad, some are good. Personally, I went to a stellar public school in one of the most liberal regions of the country (Walt Whitman HS in Bethesda MD). You'll be pleased to know that I am well aware that the phrase "separation of church and state" is not in the constitution, that the bill of rights originally did not apply to the states (but can you name the case that said so? Hint: It's initials are B v. B), and that the 10th amendment does, indeed exist. You'll probably be less pleased to know that I also know that the 2nd amendment talks in the context of a "well-regulated militia," that nowhere in the constitution is the phrase "original intent/meaning/understanding" present, and that the 14th amendment, by its terms, applies its protections to all PERSONS under the jurisdiction of the US, not just citizens (in other words, the suspected "enemy combatants" we have in custody count). I also can find Iraq on a map, and name its capital; I can do the same for most countries in the Middle East. I believe the war in Iraq was right and just, and I believe that President Bush royally screwed it up. I vote Democrat, and I hate Michael Moore. In short, I learned facts, yes, and also to become a critical thinker (don't think its easy to be a Democrat supporting the Iraq war in a 70% liberal school!). Part of being a critical thinker means challenging accepted modes of thinking and analyzing and critiquing pre-existing institutions--actions you'd probably group under "revisionist history" or "destructive and degenerate behavior," but which are vital to an informed citizenry and an engaged populace. Or at least, so I was taught.

Such was my education; it got me into one of the finest colleges in the country. And virtually all of that knowledge was either learned in the class, researched for school-sponsored extra-curriculars (IE, debate), or inspired by one of the several wonderful teachers I had the privilege of studying under.

We all can find our horror stories, and we can all find our explanations for them. You say X public school is bad, I say that its in an awful neighbor where kids are getting shot daily, what do you expect? I say that the military needs to come to terms with the abuses committed under its name, you say its just a few pranksters. The point remains the same: we should fix problems, not attach labels. I got a wonderful education at an incredible public school. Rather than throwing out talking points, why don't we concentrate on making more students' experiences like mine?

Yours,
David Schraub
Walt Whitman '04
Carleton College '08
The Debate Link: http://dsadevil.blogspot.com