Dept. of quagmires

Sometimes the shadows on the wall tell you more than the real action. This week a Doonesbury character is seriously injured in Iraq. The character of B.D. -- who started in artist Garry Trudeau's Harvard days as the glamorous football team captain who ended up in Vietnam, later became the coach of the college team and recently was reactivated and sent to Iraq -- got blown up on Monday. Today they're trying to save his life, and an Associated Presss story revealed he would survive but lose a leg.

Another strip had a similar storyline. The main character in "Get Fuzzy" discovers that a "cousin" has lost a leg in Iraq.

What a contrast to the Vietnam-era Doonesburys, where the war was treated as a serious joke.