Monday, February 06, 2006

Intimidation Watch: While the Defense Department hasn't burned anyone's embassy in protest, they have taken offense to another benign political cartoon. This one was published in these here United States of America.

Answering critics who have raised questions about the present condition of our military, whether we're stretched thin fighting two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said we're just fine and called our soldiers "battle hardened."

Liberal cartoonist Tom Toles drew this cartoon as a result.


Now the Joint Chiefs of Staff have condemned Toles and his employer, the Washington Post, for criticizing our soldiers.

This cartoon is obviously not criticizing anyone except Rumsfeld. Any accusation otherwise may not amount to censorship, but it does count as unnecessary government intimidation.

Luckily the only result has been more people seeing the cartoon instead of fewer.