Ted Rall by Ted Rall

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  1. tjdestry

    tjdestryGenius_badge said, 4 months ago

    I hope you don’t honestly believe there aren’t guys on the ground in very rough situations. I hope you don’t honestly believe this is the first war where adversaries didn’t see each other. Because I’d hate to think you did something this tasteless by accident.

  2. SomethingPositive

    SomethingPositive said, 4 months ago

    Easy to say from your apartment…

  3. pugnax

    pugnax said, 4 months ago

    If taste were a major criterion, I wouldn’t be a Rall fan. There are other values and measures.

  4. NotVeryTalented

    NotVeryTalented said, 4 months ago

    Yeah, tjdestry, I think this is a poor way to go after the work of the Predator operators. A bad misfire on Rall’s part.

  5. Adam Sperry

    Adam Sperry said, 4 months ago

    ‘I hope you don’t honestly believe there aren’t guys on the ground in very rough situations.’

    I think that’s the point- While the guys on the ground have it very rough, these guys are back in The States under much different circumstances.

    The Doc is rolling her eyes at him remembering the troopers that got their legs blown off.

    Have you seen the new Army ads:

    ‘Do you like video games? You’ll love piloting a drone!’

  6. nomad2112

    nomad2112 said, 4 months ago

    Just not funny.

  7. Varda

    Varda said, 4 months ago

    Good on you Ted. This was hilarious!

  8. churchillwasright

    churchillwasright said, 4 months ago

    Is Rall suggesting that we go back to hand-to-hand combat and bayonets? Nah, he just hates that the U.S. has military superiority.

    Suppose, in a bizaro world, that we were only able to fight with the same weapons as the enemy, ie. roadside bombs. He’d be complaining of the unfairness because we had more than the enemy. This *is* Rall, after all. He hates the U.S.

    Is he suggesting that a computer geek can’t feel guilt for bombing unnamed faces, or for a computer crash that ultimately costs the lives of his fellow troops?

    How about bombers during WWII dropping bombs on the unseen below? Did some of them return with PTSS?

  9. jmworacle

    jmworacle said, 4 months ago

    This is an insult to the brave men who have put it on the line in Afganistan and other wars.

  10. Gary Kleppe

    Gary Kleppe said, 4 months ago

    Suppose, in a Bizzaro world, we actually had to talk to people instead of blowing them to smithereens.

  11. dtroutma

    dtroutma said, 4 months ago

    His comment regard the guys in Nevada who are actually flying these things. I was on the ground and got piloted “close” (in fact VERY close) air support. I would NOT have wanted to depend on technology, with the “real time” that actually IS a lag in having it rain from the sky near me. At the same time, some of the dudes I knew who flew high altitude did have “second thoughts” on what was actually happening on the ground. I totally oppose the trend toward drones, this is becoming a HUGE investment, and when we lose the moral content of risk in war, it is way to easy to start them.

  12. parkersinthehouse

    parkersinthehouse said, 4 months ago

    sometimes i give you a hard time troutma, but seriously your post here makes so much sense - the psychology of the moral content of risk in war - your whole statement. are you s.a.c.? are you out of offutt? (my uncle was)

  13. Cpt. Jay

    Cpt. Jay said, 4 months ago

    Ummm…

  14. oldlegodad

    oldlegodadGenius_badge said, 4 months ago

    Daily Mail and other UK sites are getting really upset the Brit troops are getting inferior equipment and/or US cast offs. One poster even suggested UK asks US to kit them out. Hey! Overseas Arm sales are overseas Arms Sales.Even if we have to give no money down, 0% financing and 100 years to pay.

  15. M Kitt

    M KittGenius_badge said, 4 months ago

    Ted’s exadurating but this toon has some truth at it’s core, agreed, DTR, slippery slope.

    This form of air superiority benefits U.S. troops & pilots but can also be a crutch, by relying on this less “involved” form of recon. (no human intel to confirm) and missile launch platform civilian casualties have dramatically increased, particularly across the Pakistan border.

    That’s the trade-off, troops on the ground and conventional air recon. can’t always get “realtime” data but this way mistakes are felt immediately……….no second guessing using the drones.

    Think Rall is likely referencing Counterpunch and other SOF critiques http://www.counterpunch.org/porter06192009.html

  16. Ripit

    Ripit said, 4 months ago

    Hahaha! Nice, Ted.

    To commenters who think this devalues any of our troops, you are taking it wrong.

  17. edmondd

    edmondd said, 4 months ago

    I’m praying for your safety Ted. There must already be a Nixonian/Nixotic, jingoistic patriot adding you to a black list titled “Domestic, traitorous ‘enemy combatants’ to be wary of”.

  18. mattro53

    mattro53 said, 4 months ago

    He’s the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,
    His orders come from far away no more,
    They come from here and there and you and me,
    And brothers can’t you see,
    This is not the way we put an end to war.

    Buffy St. Marie “Universal Soldier”

  19. dtroutma

    dtroutma said, 4 months ago

    Parker- I was Army (helicopter crew chief, hearing loss in a tunnel, and other “duties as assigned”), but knew guys at Castle AFB that flew 52s, a good friend flew F-100s in ‘Nam, and I”ve known other jet jockeys, also Special Forces, Pathfinders, SEALS (my son was with them, though a SEABEE), and other people who do things most would regard as well, nuts. That is because too few of our “outspoken” folks actually have the courage to do what they do. Bless ‘em all.

    p.s. those who hate war the most, are those who were good at it.

  20. M Kitt

    M KittGenius_badge said, 4 months ago

    DTR, I was a Navy construction diver, we flew to a lot of our worksites so I’ve seen most sides of military transport and operations, including some that were “warm” enough to carry live rounds.
    Never done live-fire operations tho so I don’t pretend to know exactly what that’s like, but have a good general idea of the difference and much training over the years.
    Eisenhower agreed with you, those that have seen combat have the least inclination to expose anyone else to it.
    Thanks for the service.

  21. Corosive Frog

    Corosive Frog said, 4 months ago

    I really don’t like this new kind of war, with “Weapons that think so you don’t have to” and that can very bad, but come on, nobody should say there are no troops really involved. what do you think 122 canadian soldiers (only stat I have handy right now, comes from Radio-Canada) and soldiers from other US allies died from? Carpal tunel?

  22. EnglishTeacher

    EnglishTeacher said, 4 months ago

    Corosive Frog: Spelling error - “carpal tunnel.”

  23. YouWereWarned

    YouWereWarned said, 4 months ago

    Hey Froggy, you forgot to mention that the very first Kanuck soldiers to die there were bombed from far above by one of these courageous Yanks pilots.
    And BTW, where did you lose your 2nd r?

  24. parkersinthehouse

    parkersinthehouse said, 4 months ago

    y’all who served, thank you.

    we never thanked you enough.

  25. Corosive Frog

    Corosive Frog said, 4 months ago

    YouWereWarned; Sooky chewed it up, so I threw it away.

  26. believecommonsense

    believecommonsenseGenius_badge said, 4 months ago

    English Teacher: do we know you under a different name and avatar? I keep thinking I know your “voice” under a different name …

  27. YouWereWarned

    YouWereWarned said, 4 months ago

    Just out: “Ron Arkin, a robotics engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is taking things a step further by developing robot drones that make their own independent judgements about when to use deadly force against an enemy. As Arkin told Discovery News, he is designing software that acts as an “ethical governor” that tells robots when they should and should not open fire.”
    Whoa! No more PWTS for US brave thugs, err.. soldiers.

  28. believecommonsense

    believecommonsenseGenius_badge said, 4 months ago

    what’s PWTS?

  29. DrCanuck

    DrCanuck said, 4 months ago

    Why is it that a man who sacrifices his life for his faith and country by hyjacking a plane and flying it into a building is a “cowardly terrorist” while a man who sits in an airconditioned office and pushes a button to active a Preditor missile is a “brave hero?”

  30. M Kitt

    M KittGenius_badge said, 4 months ago

    Some military will obviously disagree, DrC, but the term “Hero” has always been defined by whose side of the conflict you’re on, that and who’s eventually declared the “winner” by the most influential majority.

  31. parkersinthehouse

    parkersinthehouse said, 4 months ago

    wow mattro - universal soldier

    that brings back memories

  32. DrCanuck

    DrCanuck said, 4 months ago

    Hey Kitt; you know it and I know it, but I was hoping for an answer from a conservative military backer-type who would call me names.

  33. believecommonsense

    believecommonsenseGenius_badge said, 4 months ago

    Canookie, hijacking isn’t spelled with a “y”

    and a “Predator” missile isn’t spelled with an “i” and

    one would “activate”, not “active” a button to launch the missile

  34. 4uk4ata

    4uk4ata said, 4 months ago

    @DrC - I am sure to some people the suicide bombers are the heroes and the military men at the drone controls the terrorists. Subjectivity is only human.

    BTW, who exactly called the terrorists “cowardly”? I can agree with a lot of other epithets, but generally doing something that will cost you your life is not the act of a coward.

  35. DrCanuck

    DrCanuck said, 4 months ago

    Hey BCsensitive: who do you think you are, EnglishTeacher?

  36. believecommonsense

    believecommonsenseGenius_badge said, 4 months ago

    Oh, what the hey, go back to senseless if you so choose.
    No, definitely not ET; though do agree some folks should review their posts (their, not there) a little more carefully because some posts are so full of typos I can’t figure out what they mean.

    the “looser” correction was really needed, though, don’t think it was a typo

  37. Dypak

    DypakGenius_badge said, 4 months ago

    This comic might have been true years ago, but now it’s just another load of manure. There is no front, the enemy is everywhere and you can’t tell the good guys from the bad. Most everyone, even the clerks and jerks, are required to pull guard duty and convoy detail. This is where the casualties happen. Especially since insurgents don’t like to tackle infantry and armor units, they prefer the soft targets. Like our boy in the comic. The don’t have the fire power the combat arms guys get and are easier targets. Someone needs to do a better job on his homework if he’s going to be an editorial cartoonist.

  38. Cpt. Jay

    Cpt. Jay said, 4 months ago

    Hear hear, Dypak! Well said and well met, sir! Thank you!!!