Cartoon: Just Wait Until the Harvest

Andrew Wahl, OfftheWahl.com, Wenatchee World Newspaper

Here is Andrew's weekly commentary:

I’m runninga bit late with this week’s cartoon. A trip to Portland for a comicbook convention, a visit to Powell’s Books and dinner at The OldSpaghetti Factory saw me in a much happier place this past weekend.But, when I returned home, a review of world hot spots brought mequickly back down to Earth:

    - Iran: The rogue super-power-in-waiting continues to flauntthe international community in its pursuit of becoming a nuclear power.Think Iranian President Mahmoud “Israel Must Be Wiped Off the Map”Ahmadinejad is scary now? Imagine him leading the Muslim side in theworld’s first nuclear-powered crusade.
    - Iraq: Of course, our ability to do anything about Iran isgreatly curtailed by the debacle in Iraq. The Little President WhoCried Wolf is having a very difficult time finding a taker for anotherhelping of “grave and gathering threat” rhetoric, even if it mightactually be true this time. Meanwhile, conditions on the ground of ourcurrent conflict continue to deteriorate, with insurgents in Iraqadding deadly chlorine gas to their arsenal and British forces packingtheir bags.
    - North Korea: The news is a bit better in this corner ofthe world, with long-stalled, six-way talks finally producing adisarmament agreement. But haven’t we been here before? One difference,of course, is that North Korea has now actually tested a nucleardevice. And the constant is Kim Jong Il, a leader with even greatertrust issues than Bush. Somehow, I don’t see this one ending well.
    - Russia: On Feb. 10, Vladimir Putin blasted the UnitedStates’ militaristic unilateralism in what presidential contender JohnMcCain called “the most aggressive speech from a Russian leader sincethe end of the Cold War.” While our attention is focused on emergingnuclear threats, the hardline Russian president continues to roll backdemocratic reforms while sitting on arguably the largest stockpile ofWMDs in the world. Even money says we awake from the War on Terror tofind ourselves dead smack in the middle of a second Cold War.

    One constant to all of these situations: WMDs everywhere. Throw inother known WMD players — including (but not limited to) China, France,Great Britain, India, Israel, Pakistan and, of course, the UnitedStates — as well as terrorist organizations like al Qaeda who wouldlove to acquire such weapons, and the likelihood of seeing acatastrophic nuclear, radiological, biological or chemical attack inthe near future seems all but inevitable.
    This week’s toon, “Just Wait Until the Harvest …” [Archive No. 0708], tries to capture that inevitability.

Back Monday,
Andrew
toon@offthewahl.com

Thanks for the cartoon, Andrew.  We'll look forward to your cartoon next week.  Just a side note: Andrew Wahl is a cartoonist for the Wenatchee World Newspaper, and posts one cartoon per week on this site.