Why?

I love Clay Bennett's work. No other political cartoonist can be so succinct, so poignant, and so insightfully honest all at once.

Though I could ramble on and on about how pointless & bizarre I find terrorism, or how sad I do feel for Londoners. I thought a semi-whimsical anecdote might be better.

My mother was a huge fan of the TV Show M*A*S*H, and I was raised on it. In one episode, the show's solemn sinner of a hero - Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce - for no good reason, just loses it and begins to ask "why." He spends the entire episode asking everyone he meets "Why?" To which they all quickly reply, "Why . . . what?" Indeed, he even sends a wire to Harry Truman, the then President of the United States, to ask him
"Dear Harry,
Who started it?
Sincerely,
Capt. Benjamin Franklin Pierce"
He explains, in his typical wise-crack manner, that he wants to know why they're at war with the North Koreans. Some characters just say they don't know and walk away. Others simply state that there are no good reasons. Some try to justify it all thru hasty rationalizations, only to realizing that their logic fails and likewise walkaway. Finally, Hawkeye asks Maj. Frank Pierce - the show's villain & the embarassing embodiment of every bad image ever associated with American men all at once. Frank simply responds, in his usually snivelling manner, that the North Koreans want to threaten the American way of life, that they want to come over to the states and take away free enterprise, TV, automobiles, and even plumbing. Yes, plumbing.
Frank ultimately decides that the North Koreans are at war with the US because they want to steal our toilets. Upon finally getting an honest, be it absurd answer, Hawkeye is greatful. So much so, that he hooks a jeep onto a lutrine, and drops it off at the North Korean/South Korean border in an attempt to end the war.

My anecdote is not meant to humiliate Americans, state that all wars are stupid, or to pick on the misguided efforts of geopolitics. Instead, I too, would like to join with Hawkeye and ask any and all terrorists everywhere around the world . . .

WHY?