Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for August 20, 2010

For those of you who haven’t seen Ronin:

Spence [Sean Bean] claims to be an S.A.S. veteran based in Hereford. In Bravo Two Zero, Bean plays an S.A.S sergeant and mentions that Hereford is his home base. Hereford (on the England/Wales border) is the site of the S.A.S. regimental headquarters, known as Stirling Lines.

I grew up with a big-talker. Most of his stories were embellished beyond belief, but always had a kernel of truth. And he always “pre-bragged” about how he was gonna catch the biggest fish when we were heading out camping. We’d give him a hard time and tell him he was full of it. Funny thing though, he always DID catch the biggest fish…

We don’t tell him he’s full of it anymore.

Talk it up Jeff, aim for the sky. You just might hit something big.

yeah, I guess everyone knows someone like that…

“In the meantime, this guy should be thinking, if he’s so good why is he looking for a job with us?”

That there are large numbers of the power “elite” who would NEVER think this way is what will inevitably lead to their downfall. ;-7

Tell us some more lies about the war Daddy.

Now there’s a daily double: the Red Rascal and the Black Messiah.

I learned a long time ago too be humble and not to seem prideful as per the Sisters Of St. Joseph. Then I learned that approach got me nowhere fast, to blow my own horn and most importantly when given a compliment not to try to talk the praiser out of it. Just smile and say thank you.

“Talk it up Jeff, aim for the sky. You just might hit something big.”

What - that friendly helicopter he shot down wasn’t big enough?

“In the meantime, this guy should be thinking, if he’s so good why is he looking for a job with us?”

Kind of easy there: because the private sector pays about five times what the CIA does.

Been there, done that…drove the last train out of the great Chicago fire. Whaddya mean I wasn’t even born yet?

Ok time to impress with his skillset: show him how fast he can tweet and operate an I-phone.

OK, so he’s impressed the top levels of the “other guys”. Great. How about the side trying to protect American interests?

This seems to be the typical interview of the fraud college kid trying to impress. Usually ends up as the wrong impression.

@Ravenswing

Yup… variety of reasons actually, some include “retirement” (but Red Rascal is a bit young to pull that one off)…

But one angle GB might be gradually insinuating is that in light of Blackwater and Halliburton, privatized “defense” jobs appear to have a bit more leaway, not necessarily being bound by things like the G-Con and formal accords between state-level entities.

Wildcard’s guess may be right: GT could even be toying with sending Jeff to Iraq among the new civilian contractors whom Obama’s hiring to replace the troops.

Notice GT’s sly, self-mocking reference to the “deniability” of these secret missions. Obama is no more responsible for them than GT is answerable for the clownish blundering of his cartoon character Jeff.

jeffery,

they will find out if you’re fibbing…

aircraft-engineer said, since Karzai ordered out all of the “rent-a-cops”…

That’s Afghanistan, not Iraq. Or do you mean they will be available for working in Iraq now?

rmbdot - glad you noticed. ;>)