Congress is returning today after their a 5 week recess (you had most of August off from your job, didn’t you?) to face the question of Syria. President Obama will also be making his case for airstrikes on six(!) networks today, followed by a Tuesday prime-time address from the White House.
Here’s what I thought in 2003 about Bush’s push for war in Iraq:
…and here’s what I think about Obama’s case for airstrikes in Syria.
Outer Banks, NC
Oh, this is rich.
“One thing that is very interesting, it seems to me, is that there really hasn’t been any indication from the administration as to what our national interest is with respect to this particular situation,” Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said in an interview with Fox News’s Neil Cavuto. 
It’s looking more and more like the US will be launching air strikes in Syria, possibly as early as Thursday. You’ll have to excuse my cynical tone, but here we go again. Here’s an illuminating chart by a well-known Egyptian blogger which shows the complicated and constantly changing relationships in the Middle East. Of course our past policies have contributed to the never-ending cycle of violence in the region:
There are some congress members speaking out against military action.
Here’s my latest animation on the subject.
Yesterday as I was finishing up a deadline, I noticed this at the Guardian website. The partner of Glenn Greenwald (one of the journalists who broke the Snowden/NSA story) was detained for 9 hours at London’s Heathrow airport. As an American and an editorial cartoonist, this is a very disturbing development. I remember right after 9/11 how ordinary people were detained for weeks without access to legal counsel, all in the name of preventing terrorism threats.
This reinforces one of my biggest fears- that people who criticize the government will be targeted. Every time I’m interviewed I always talk about how we American cartoonists never have to face the types of threats other cartoonists around the world do because we have the First Amendment to protect us. This is the first time I truly feel the situation has changed.
Here’s Glenn’s response and Andrew Sullivan’s piece challenging PM Cameron. Be sure to read the last line; the unfortunate reality is that it’s a question which needs to be asked.
I’m in NYC for a Cartooning for Peace interview with fellow cartoonists Liza Donnelly and Jeff Danziger. The filming was done at the historic Society of Illustrators building. We discussed the state of cartooning, free speech, and what limitations we deal with here in the US.
