Condalisa Rice

After the militant terrorist group Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and held them in Lebanon, Israel reacted by bombing Lebanon. Although this was mainly an attack on Hezbollah, inevitably Lebanon was caught in the cross fire and ended up far worse off than Hezbollah. This cartoon, drawn by Mark Knight and published in the Herald Sun on 25th August 2006 presents Knight's personal stance towards U.S. involvement in this crisis, showing that he thinks the U.S. were too late to help the situation and perhaps didn't even care.

Condalisa Rice, the U.S. Secretary of State has been portrayed as superwoman, arriving at the scene of Beirut after it has been destroyed. This is also a comment on the irony of the situation, as superwoman is supposed to save the day. Superwoman is supposed to be voluptuous and heroic, but Knight has portrayed her as superwoman gone wrong: skinny and ugly, almost devil like. Her question 'Am I too late?' shows her ignorance of and lack of concern for the issue. Her facial expression shows that she is arrogant, overconfident, and perhaps to a degree embarrassed by the crisis.

The image of Condalisa Rice, expressionless and ignorant, is contrasted with the background of death and destruction, showing the city of Beirut lying in ruins, a serious matter which the U.S. does not take seriously enough. The few survivors that there are are drawn tiny in comparison to Condalisa Rice, implying that as far as the U.S. are concerned, they are unimportant and do not matter to them at all. The empty shoe sitting on the ground implies that someone has been killed, a symbol of widespread civilian death in Beirut. The rubble everywhere shows that Beirut has been completely destroyed, as do the leaning and crumbling towers in the background, which represent that Lebanon will be instable for a long time to come.

The comment 'The Superpower Arrives' pokes fun at the supposed saviour of the free world, America, arriving to the scene of the Israel-Lebanon crisis too late, completely ignorant of the issue, and without much concern for it. Condalisa Rice's path to the scene shows that she took a detour, trying to avoid the real problem. The comment 'Am I too late', when she obviously is, shows that she doesn't really care, isn't bothered at all, and doesn't take seriously the Israel-Lebanon crisis.

With this cartoon, Knight

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