The Washington Post has received a letter of reprimand from "an unusual number of high-level signatures, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and each of its five members," concerning a political cartoon it printed in its Sunday, January 29 edition. The cartoon portrayed a seriously wounded Iraq war veteran in a hospital bed with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld playing the role of the doctor saying, "I'm listing your condition as 'battle hardened.'"

The letter recognized that the cartoonist, Pulitzer Prize winner Tom Toles, may disagree with the War in Iraq but that he should not use "such a callous depiction of those who have volunteered to defend this nation."

Toles understood the Joint Chiefs of Staff's position, but expressed no regret for drawing the cartoon, stating that his commentary was not meant as a "derogatory comment on the service or sacrifice of American soldiers."

Reflecting on his craft, Toles said, "It is the nature of cartooning that someone can read an analogy a cartoon uses to mean things other than what was intended. The only way to avoid that problem is to draw cartoons that have no impact."

Source: The Washington Post