"Whether you think we belong in Iraq or not," he said, "we can't tune it out. We have to remain mindful of the terrible losses that individual soldiers are suffering in our name."
Robert C. Harvey, author of "The Art of the Funnies," a history of newspaper comic strips, said Trudeau's Memorial Day eulogy "is in perfect concert with having B.D. lose his leg to draw attention to the sacrifices soldiers are making."
The only time Harvey recalls seeing as many names in a comic strip was in 1988, when "Steve Canyon" cartoonist Milton Caniff died. Seventy-eight cartoonists signed a strip that ran with the classic battlefield image of a fallen soldier -- a helmet placed atop a gun stuck barrel-down into the ground. The same image will run alongside the names in the May 30 "Doonesbury."
Harvey predicted that reaction to Trudeau would be similar to what occurred when Koppel ran his list.
"You'll get some saying it's just Trudeau being an antiwar activist, and others saying he's just recognizing the last sacrifice of these people," Harvey said. "But, you know, some people think we ought to be paying a little more attention to it."
