Bin Laden's goal on 9/11 was to attack and severely disrupt Wall Street in New York, the core of our government in DC and the military machine at the Pentagon. Two of the three attacks were completed and all three of the goals were of limited success. In DC the congress and president gave a knee-jerk reaction by creating a war in Iraq that had nothing to do with Bin Laden, with the fear factor playing a role in the next presidential election. At the Pentagon the resources of two major wars would be stretched to the limits. And on Wall Street lower interest rates and easy credit helped create the worst economic situation since the Great Depression. And to this day Bin Laden has not been captured.

I have some friends who still get visible stirred when Islamic Arabs enter the conversation. They get frantic and talk in terms of patriotic hatred, describing scenarios where bodies burn in mass pyres and prisoners are tortured beyond endurance.

It's clear they changed after 9/11 in a religious zeal that borders on paranoic complex and seek solace in vengeful retribution. This pants-crapping reaction must be seen as a "mission accomplished" moment by Bin Ladin and his followers who have suffered little consequence in the aftermath.

Never in history has a trio of Boeings gotten such political mileage.

Nice hard working folks from the middle east expereiced alot of unfairness due to fear. Most middle eastern folks do not buy into extreme radicalism.

Like many Americans I still want Bin Laden caputured, executed for the murder of 3000 plus American innocents, just like I would have wanted Hitler caputured. Both were and are major cowards.

This was a classic Sci-fi-movie unvraveling entitled Killing for Christ......If only...we could of at least walked out! The deadly combination of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld, and their second-tier cronies will haunt this country for another generation, and cost us resources beyond measure or calculation. Can we never have such a non-sensical combination of people in power ever again!

This cartoon is classic Bennett. There's not one single word in this drawing (not even a label), but its message still comes through loud and clear.

Since our country seems to finally be moving past the Draconian anti-terror polices of the Bush Administration, my guess, is this cartoon was in response to the speech Dick Cheney gave a few days ago rationalizing the measures the White House took after 9/11.

We were surely bitten by a wolf in 2001 (to go with Clay's analogy). That bite, unfortunately, brought out the beast within our country. Many of us, and certainly our leaders, seemed all to eager to embrace a visceral need for revenge at any cost, be it the forsaking of our civil liberties or the abandonment of our human decency.

Our country's greatest advantage is its goodness. When we discard that virtue, we have lost our most effective weapon.

OllieH:
You're right about "classic Bennett". Though he uses not a single word, he stimulates debate as readers find nuanced interpretation in meaning.

Though the overall message is clear, it's possibly a prediction of what will happen if another attack occurs on US soil. Our latent tendency to over react will likely resurface as we fight an internal battle over religious insecurity and national pride.

The seeds of political chaos lie beneath the surface now like a dormant virus, but even another small attack will once again bring out the extremists as surely as a werewolf rises on a full moon.

You all above have pretty much summed up for me very nicely in replying to another great cartoon. I don't know what I could possibly add.

You're right JohnnyRingo. You need look no further than a history book to see countless examples of our country succumbing to its worst instincts in times of turmoil.

Every time we fell threatened we seem to fail the test. Lives were ruined during the red-baiting 1950's in a reaction to our fear of Communism. American citizens were interned during World War II, dissenters were imprisoned under the sedition act during World War I, and even Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus rights to arrest those who questioned the Union war effort. Go back further, and you'll find the same reaction, time and time again.

Those efforts did no more to protect our citizens and promote our cause than the suspension of our rights or responsibilities as we recoiled after 9/11. Our war on terror has been a textbook example of our country's tendency to turn on itself when it's under attack.

I used to tell everyone, I hated to be the 'odd man out', when in reality I rather enjoyed it at times. Clay, I don't 'get it'.
By way of explanation, I read all the posts before me and attempted to analyze them as philosophically or psychologically as possible and all I could come up with was I don't get it.
Bin Laden is a man, albeit a 'terroristic nutcase', but a man none-the-less. And the United States may have come short of 'Paradise' in a lot of areas and even more instances throughout out our history, but to label us being susceptible to turning into something as 'unHoly' as a werewolf is totally beyond my comprehension.
The fact is, we had become apathetic, among other unseemly traits, and became an easy target for anyone 'with an ax to grind'.
Then we 'overreacted', as most will do, when assaulted the way we were. However, overreaction does not rise to the level portrayed here.
Of course, that doesn't mean we can't 'get over it' eventually, unlike the aforementioned victim of a werewolf attack, who is, and I hope I get this movie quote correct,"...always a werewolf. It only waits for the full moon to turn into the monster that awaits within...."
Shame on any of you who truly believe the U.S. has sunk to that level.
Thank you for your time and attention,
Woody

I certainly won't speak for Clay, but maybe you're trying to carry the metaphor too far, Woody. The full moon turning someone into a wolf seems to be the prevailing theme. So, if bin Laden is the man in the moon, perhaps his moon represents Al-Qaeda in general and is not symbolic of merely bin Laden himself.

You may not agree with those of us who think that the metaphoric Al-Qaeda moon has turned our metaphoric Uncle Sam into a beast, but I'm sure those who were mistreated at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo or Bagram Air Base might have had a better glimpse of the beast inside.

Remember, in many of the werewolf lore, the man who's been infected by a wolf bite doesn't want to become a beast. In fact, he often has someone chain himself up in anticipation of the full moon. But whether he wants to turn or not, it happens. And when it does, he has no control over his actions. He is ruled, not by reason or humanity, but by primitive, animalistic instincts.

This is, of course, is my own interpretation of the cartoon and may be completely wrong. But to me, it sure seems like a perfect metaphor for the past seven-and-a-half years.

Woody- I wouldn't be too offended by Clay's depiction of Uncle Sam turning into a werewolf.

He seems like a cute cartoon werewolf guy

It's like a Tom & Jerry cartoon. Jerry can smack Tom over the head with a frying pan, with no lasting consequence. Not only does Tom recover from a blow that would be a fatal to most cats, but his head resumes its normal size and shape just seconds after resembling the very frying pan with which he was struck.

It's cartoon violence.

Too bad we didn't have 'cartoon violence' in the war in Iraq.

Again, I think we can blame individuals and their supporters, and the individuals who had their own way in indoctrinating by mandated schooling, and inculcating the hatred of those who thought differently.

My aged mind forgets the name of these schools.

We have mandated schooling, too, but I think ours are a BIT different! I hope so. I'm sort of out of touch!

Once again, Clay's genius shines through! Every day should begin with Clay.

I was thinking of Madrasah, but only those that were teaching the radical, hatefilled curriculum.

I have looked up the word and found it was the exact meaning in Arabic as school is to English-speaking people.

It has no religious or secular attachment in itself.