Ted Rall

I've avoided this topic because it's been an uncomfortable one, but here goes.

Last week (I believe... you can probably locate the cartoon in his archives at http://www.ucomics.com/rallcom/), Ted Rall published a cartoon about Pat Tillman, the former pro ball player who died recently in the war.

While Ted and I share some similar views on various important points - at least so far as I can tell from his cartoons, columns, and speaking engagements - I found the Tillman cartoon extremely disquieting and felt I could understand why some were outraged. It depicted Tillman less as a hero (and man, that term gets used and abused so much today) than as a pawn in a miserable war where we're fighting civilians with 500-lb bombs and worse.

However, there's some truth in that cartoon. I might not personally feel right in mocking what Tillman felt he could accomplish, but we are conducting a war that is grossly unfair (just in terms of money and fire power, let alone dozens of other points of inequity) and Bush and his cronies have inflated this whole war phenomenon to inspire people like Tillman to join up.

The truth, as they say, sometimes hurts.