The cartoon is entiled the "20th Hijacker." There is no excuse to equate the devestation of that day with a budget deficit. None.
Next, the little character's statement, "Who coulda foreseen?" lays blame for both 9/11 and the deficit upon Bush, and, worse, equates them both.
Worst of all, Toles is not suggesting that "more damage," as you say, of Sept. 11 came in the form of the deficits from the war expenditures. Not at all. Toles and the (com)Post are obsessed with the Bush tax cuts. To their minds, a tax cut is the equivalent to crashing a plane into the seat of the Government.
There's neither excuse nor reason in this cartoon.