Anyone see this comic today from the LA Times (Gun to the head of the President)

LA Times ^ | July 20, 2003

[BostonianRightist]

"Liberals are Americas new Communists"

NEW??? these are the same liberals that that have been around since the vietnam and cold war years.

[muawiyah]

The General passed on a few year's back. His restaurant was great.

The professional leftists were always disturbed to find this man about. His presence reminded them of the fact that Conservaties think of leftists as the scum of the earth, which they are.

[Calpernia]

Ping

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/949578/posts

[Revel]

Welcome to FR. When I first saw this I thought it is only a statement that all the political bickering is a great theat to the presidency of GW. I do not think it is intending any harm to the man. But you are no longer suppose to think here...just go along to get along. See what happens if you don't share the popular interpretation.

[ppaul]

16 July 1998
SPRINGFIELD, VA (AP) - Nguyen Ngoc Loan, whose execution of a Viet Cong prisoner on the streets of Saigon in 1968 became one of the most chilling images of the Vietnam War, died Tuesday. He was 67. The former South Vietnamese general died of cancer at his home in Burke, a Washington suburb. He fled South Vietnam in 1975, the year the communists overran the country, and moved to Virginia, where he opened a restaurant.

On Feb. 1, 1968, Loan was director of South Vietnam's national police and the North Vietnamese had just begun the Tet Offensive, their huge military push southward. Firefights had broken out all over Saigon, and Loan's police were trying to rid the South Vietnamese capital of Viet Cong guerrillas. Loan led the prisoner, his hands bound, onto a street corner and in front of a group of journalists pulled his pistol and shot the prisoner point-blank in the head. The general told the newsmen that the prisoner was a known Viet Cong captain.

Eddie Adams' photo of the execution won a Pulitzer Prize for The Associated Press. NBC also showed film of the execution. Adams said yesterday that Gen. Loan's actions were misinterpreted because of the picture. "The guy was a hero. America should be crying," said Adams, now a free-lance photographer. "I just hate to see him go this way, without people knowing anything about him." Adams said the man Loan shot had been seen killing others and that Loan was justified in executing him.

The picture was among three that came to symbolize the brutality of the war, said Marco Leepson, spokesman for the Washington-based Vietnam Veterans of America. The photo of a screaming girl running down a road after napalm had burned off her clothing and the picture of helicopters rescuing people from the roof of a Saigon building as the city fell are the others, he said.

The Tet Offensive had a powerful effect on U.S. public opinion because it contradicted assurances from the Johnson administration that the United States was winning the war. The photograph "was a part of the media presentation of the Tet Offensive and that had a pretty big negative impact on public opinion," Leepson said.

Leslie Cullen, a military history professor at Texas Tech University who specializes in the Vietnam War, said the man Loan summarily executed was involved in killing a policeman and his family. "Not that such a thing was justified, but people had the impression from press reports that this guy was killing him just to be killing him," Cullen said. "People had a question in their mind, `Do we support people who do this?'"

Loan is survived by his wife, Chinh Mai, and his five children.

[DoughtyOne]

I wrote a note of displeasure with Ramirez for this cartoon, on up the thread.  In that comment I stated that I do not support anyone depicting the president in this manner.  I do think it is germane to the issue to try to figure out what Ramirez was trying to say.

Is there anyone out there who doesn't think the Democrats are represented here?  They are the ones with the gun to Bush's head over pure politics.

I've been watching Ramirez' cartoons for some time.  Most generally he supports the right side of the isle rather stridently, so it would be out of character for him to be saying anything against Bush here.

If you look at the person holding the gun to Bush's head, it makes (all be it Im-) perfect sense if you see the gun bearer as the democrats.

They are willing to take Bush down by "just about" any means necessary.  If this cartoon is unacceptable, and I too see it that way, what are the actions of the democrats at this time, if not also unacceptable?

While I wouldn't have used this cartoon to get my point across, it's very powerful and not intended to be anti-Bush IMO.

[thatdewd]

You nailed it. The cartoon is pro-Bush, but in very bad taste.

[PianoMan]

Just the point I was going to make. The guy being executed was a cold blooded killer of innocents. The captain executing him was a good guy doing a good thing. As someone born post-Vietnam this type of anti-truth amazes me (not on this forum of course). The mainstream accounts of Vietnam turn night into day and vice versa. But this is for another thread.

[unspun]

Post your complaints here:

http://www.latimes.com/services/site/la-comment-artzone.htmlstory
http://www.latimes.com/services/site/la-comment-oped.htmlstory

My complaint...

Title: Bush Assassination Cartoon
You don't wonder why the book is called "Treason" do you?
Sick, sick people.

[jagrmeister]

It's time to convey the truth that the Left operates on resentment, not compassion. The invective and venom that flows from it is all a product of that resentment.

[Destro]

FOR THE LAST TIME - The cartoonist is a well known CONSERVATIVE!!!!!!!!!

[unspun]

A blunder upon the part of the cartoonist, but a sick, sick bit of publishing by the editors of the Los Angeles Times. No way they should have let this pass.

[Helms]

This Bears Repeating:

[Destro]

They can publish anything they want. Freedom and all. The President is not Pharoah-he is not Man-God. We build libraries for presidents like they were pyramids. Stop the worship. The cartoon is a powerful PRO BUSH statement and I have no problem with its pro-Bush message. Why did you think it was a Democratic message? Too quick to judge?

[Helms]

Hear, hear.

[jern]

You know after I posted this. I started thinking the same thing. To me, it shows that his hands are tied by the politicians, and not only are they tied. the pols want to kill off what he is doing in Iraq as well.

I agree with you in this case, even though I don't think it is appropiate for any commander in cheif.

[jbstrick]

"You nailed it. The cartoon is pro-Bush, but in very bad taste."

Bad taste? Ithink it is waaaaayyy over the line. The secret service will be paying the Times a call.

[jbstrick]

"FOR THE LAST TIME - The cartoonist is a well known CONSERVATIVE!!!!!!!!!"

Oh... So that makes it OK?

[thatdewd]

The secret service will be paying the Times a call.

For what, pointing out the media coverage and recent political dialogue on Iraq is nothing more than a deliberate attempt to unjustifiably crucify W? Sure the cartoon is in very bad taste and that should be pointed out. We just shouldn't let our knee-jerking cause us to miss it's point. Besides, if the Secret Service starts paying people calls over something like this, then we should just start referring to them by their initials...

[CyberAnt]

This is not a comic - this is a HIT PIECE on our President. I hope the SS gives them a very, very bad time over it. Can anybody even imagine what the uproar would have been had this been reversed and the shootee had been x42 ..??