Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for March 20, 2011

“On the right side of history.” O-o-o-o-o-k. ROFLMAO.

Jeff’s a survivor… otherwise he wouldn’t be The Red Rascal!

Joanie’s about to get another one of those “Uh, Mom?” phone calls.

Better than getting one of those “we regret to inform you” visits from an uncomfortable second lieutenant.

Actually, she’s going to get both.

Red Rascal is shown here in six perspectives. Five of them come from the fictional characters themselves, but I wonder what makes G.T. think the White House, too, is following his “great saga”?

The president has a greater distraction in the mad Qaddafi, who writes Obama letters addressing him as “my son.”

As I understand it, dailies were once written about two weeks in advance, and Sunday strips about six weeks in advance. Perhaps nowadays those schedules have been shortened by technology.

Didn’t the arcs also come together at the time Jeff made his misdirected payment to one of Hamid Karzai’s brothers?

Oh, and re: White House priorities, the actual chief executive did once remark—in a dig at McCain’s “suspension” of his campaign to address (as Senator) the 2008 financial meltdown—that one of the requirements of the presidential job is to be able to deal with more than one thing at a time.

This is one cat that definitely has got nine lives. He better stop using them all up so quickly, though.

Those guys had better remember that no good deed goes unpunished.

@woowie, he’s got lots of help using up those lives. Much of it from people he still thinks are 1) on his side and 2) part of his “USA! USA!” And in this he doesn’t much differ from the common boots on the ground American soldier.

RANSOM… We’ll pay you to keep him!

“We demand $50M ransom!” ………….. “Would you give US 50 Dinar to take him back?”

Whoa, baby! An overwhelming life crisis morphs into a near-death experience and shamanic resurrection in Afghanistan. The Red Rascal’s gonna ride for real … and we get to tag along as poor Jeff learns a lot more than he ever wanted to know about that ancient curse: “May you live in interesting times, may you attract the attention of important people, and may all your dreams come true.” Thanks, Garry!

Does the Red Rascal know Greg Mortensen? A different version of 3 Cups of Tea?

Justice: “Would you give US 50 Dinar to take him back?”

“The Ransom of Red Rascal”? O. Henry, anyone?

queertoons, while it’s possible that technological improvements are involved, a simpler solution would be that Trudeau had this storyline planned far enough in advance that he was able to coordinate his Sunday production schedule with his Daily schedule.

with Hilary saying she has no idea where the ransom money comes from, and a triumphant ride back to the states in a helicopter serviced by Melissa…..

Zipper is starting to sound like one of those corporate buck passers at BP.

Who was the hoist operator anyways?

The Rascal needs Sebastian’s Voodoo Magic, more than Jeff’s magic realism.

And now… The REAL LIFE adventure begins!

Or as real as a fictional comic strip can get…

And if nothing else, Jeff and Zip ACCOMPLISHED the mission.

They did it. Jeff’s having a bit of a rough time, but his job was always the highest-risk position on the team. The pilots obviously did an amazingly good job if they were able to dodge a pair of fighters and escape the NFZ.

But when all is said and done, this is a huge WIN for Jeff.

Orion

Until very recently, the first 2 panels accurately reflects the administration’s wait-and-see attitude towards the Libyan people.

However, today’s reality is much more complex than GT’s magical realism. The US finds itself once again in Charlie Wilson’s Afghanistan, taking sides with the Taliban to oust a more immediately notorious nuisance, and only after having been dragged kicking and screaming into taking up arms against his “father” by the Arab League, much of Europe, and his own Secretary of State.

Meanwhile, now having gone full circle with George W. Bush’s legacy, the president directs a major US attack against a sovereign nation from a golf course in Rio. Unlike Bush, Obama has postponed getting Congressional approval for the causing the death of thousands of combatants and civilians until he gets at least 9 holes in.

Would it be fair to say that Obama voted against the war before he voted for it?

As the Zen Master said, “We’ll see”.

You’re right, Nemesys, that Obama voted against invading Iraq—not because he thought war unnecessary but because our preoccupation with the Near East made us lose sight of the far more lethal threat from Pakistan. In opting to involve us in the Arab revolt, Obama runs the risk of alienating the House of Saud and jeopardizing our oil supply. Bush had neither the vision nor the fortitude to do that.

Now if we could somehow patch things up with Iran, we’d have a new (historically, traditional) ally against both our foes—Arabs and Pakistanis.

rayannina said, about 19 hours ago

Better than getting one of those “we regret to inform you” visits from an uncomfortable second lieutenant.

They don’t send inexperienced officers to this task. It would be done by a field grade officer.

“Or is it” – I am hooked on this cliffhanger that continues to keep me riveted and avoid unnecessary work like paying off credit cards thus erasing American debt.

The Red Rascal will ride again/

Thanks, fritzoid!

Yeah, I assumed they were planned and coordinated. (And thanks to GT for the little treat!)

I only mentioned the possibly shortened time schedules in passing because I’m obsessive (witness this note), and thought both production windows might have shortened since the time I picked up my old information. By the way, that information dates from some time when Trudeau (or his syndicate, I suppose) was able to convince the papers that ran him to make a short-notice substitution for timely topicality, maybe related also to tone. Don’t recall what the event was, though.