Sunday Morning Cartoons From Afghanistan!
"Bet you can't hit the one in the middle"
This week’s batch of cartoons are rather darker than what I usually go for at Afghan Desk, but I think they are some of the most powerful, non-photographic images I’ve seen here. The above cartoon is an older one, and refers to a time at the start of the US invasion, when the doomed Taliban government was in it’s last throws of violence and revenge killings. Like all the cartoons this week, this one is from Killid Weekly, where I mentor Afghan journos and do some editing. The design editor showed me this cartoon and told me that just before the Taliban fell, snipers would perch on the high ground above major thoroughfares in the city and shoot civilians at random. “We would be driving to work and bodies would be lying on the side of the street with blood coming out of their heads,” he recalls. “But we had to get to work. How else could we feed our families?”
More darkness after the jump…
I thought this cartoon would be appropriate given “Pakistan Week” at Afghan Desk. The bag-o-cash, care of Uncle Sam at the left of the image, is going to the Pakistani terrorist machine (that would be the green, castle looking deal.) The money goes to Pakistan, which churns out terrorists, who move on down the line to Afghanistan, symbolized by the crumbling, destroyed building on the left. I discussed these relationships in detail last week, here and here.
This cartoon needs no explanation. The words on the bottom right are a plea for reconciliation and peace.
Post Your Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment
T/S Members
Log in with your True/Slant account.
These are terrible and terribly sad images. I feel so helpless. You are very young, Mr Tobias, but you may still know of a song that was first played in the U.S. about 40 years ago or so. It comes to mind now:
“War” by Edwin Starr
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv5BYEOQYLo
Thanks for the images. Very interesting on many levels. Also, thanks to you rockyinlaw. “War” was a song of the Vietnam generation that has never lost its’ relevance.
“Nothin’ but a heart breaker…”
[...] Stay tuned this weekend. We’ll have news on Saturday and as (almost) always, Sunday Morning Cartoons From Afghanistan! [...]