Still Feisty After 35 Years

[tw]

It was a memorable episode. B.D. was sent to Iraq where he lost his leg. He calls his wife, as I remember it, "Well I have some good news and bad news. The good news is that I am now down to my ideal weight."

The Iraq war death rate has been substantially less because of medical response. But the number of victims missing limbs is significantly higher. Something like one amputee for every eight deaths.

Meanwhile, the story behind why Doonesbury so accurately described what victims of the Iraqi war confront. The reasons why: from ABC News of 12 Nov 2005:

'Doonesbury' Still Feisty After 35 Years
Not long after the dust settled from the Iraqi explosion that took "Doonesbury" comic strip character B.D.'s left leg last year, the Pentagon was on the phone.

The frequent target of "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau, the Defense Department offered the satirist extensive access to soldiers wounded while fighting in Iraq and the doctors and caregivers trying to put their bodies and psyches back together.

"There are so many ways to get it wrong," Trudeau said of portraying the soldiers' struggles accurately during a recent meeting of the American Association of Sunday and Features Editors. "They figured, correctly, I could use all the help I could get."

It also spoke to the fact that "Doonesbury," an often funny, sometimes frustrating and frequently controversial comic strip born in syndication 35 years ago, is still considered weighty enough to get the government's attention.