Mailbag

My recent cartoon that called McCain a "unrepentant terrorist" for bombing civilian targets in Vietnam brought in a lot of mail--many irate and a good number that said what John McCain was actually doing was fighting for my right to draw offensive cartoons. Many were certain I wouldn't last five minutes in a Vietnamese prison camp. I thought I'd post one of the non-belligerent ones:

You have recently implied that in a cartoon that John McCain is a terrorist by being a pilot in Vietnam. However, John McCain was a soldier in a war, he was following the orders of his superior officers and was doing the job he was trained to do. He did this job against a Military force that was also equally trained to oppose him. As is evidenced by the fact that he was shot down and placed in a P.O.W. camp. Where might I add he was tortured and subjected to horrors that I would hope to never face.

I am not justifying the Vietnam war. I feel that the war in Nam was not a just war and it was not a war that needed to be fought. It is just disturbing that you would try and say that a soldier is somehow on the same level as someone who would explode bombs in his own country and call that an attempt at peace. You are obviusly someone who has never served and look at those that do with disgust and trepidation. These are the same folks that have ensured your right to free speech. I don't agree with you and what you have tried to say here, but I would not take away your right to say it. But you are wrong.

The act of war in all it's forms is horror and sorrow, but as long as there are men who hate there will always be a need for it. You and your kind will never understand this.

James T

USN