...to say the 'I'

Cox and Forkum have done it again with Unlearned Lessons. It's the cover of The Intellectual Activist's May 2004 issue, and is a beautiful depiction of the modern soldier, restrained from full action.

Go take a look, it's a great drawing.

My writing skills are woefully inadequate when it comes to writing about subjects like this.

The story I posted about a few days ago is on the front page of the Delco Times today (some of you know what that is; for the rest, it's just the local paper).

Here's the main story; the other three are about the Marines who were killed.

The Philadelphia Inquirer also has a brief story about it. [registration required]

These were Alex's guys--but I didn't know them. I drove past the unit headquarters this evening; the colors weren't up (the staff is gone for the day), but there are memorial wreaths and bouquets on the front lawn. Anyone who knows me knows I don't believe in heaven, but I still think this part of the Marines' Hymn is evocative and poignant:

If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven’s scenes;
They will find the streets are guarded
By United States Marines.

CB posts a great Interview with an Iraqi.

QUESTION: Is it less dangerous here in Mosul now than it was in the past? How dangerous is Mosul now?

ANSWER: To be honest with you the situation is still dangerous. Because, many people came from Irania, and they enter inside Iraq. They use Islam and they use that banner to fight against the American Forces, and what they call a jihad, and Islam doesn't say that, believe me they are far away from Islam. Islam does not say fight your brother or kill the innocent people. So I think their opinions are not true. Their ideas are not true.

Cox and Forkum show (again) how devastating their work can be with a single cartoon:

Click the link above to read their commentary, too.

P.S.
Can anyone help me figure out to make it so that the edge of C&F's cartoon doesn't get cut off like that?

Damn. Well, it looks like CB at Fear and Loathing in Iraq has left the buiding. There has been a lot of frenzy at and about his site in the last few days, since his blog came under review by his command and was featured on NPR. Conspiracy theories will abound, I'm sure, but it seems to me that it probably just got to be too much for someone who also happens to be living in a war zone.

Well, it is too bad, because he was certainly a unique source, but he probably made the best decision for his own sanity. I wish him the best.