Sorry, but I cannot understand why thinking Americans would be offended by that Toles cartoon.
I understand why Rumsfeld and the Joint Chiefs might be offended: in Rummy’s case, because he was the target of the joke, and in the case of the JCS, because Toles’ underlying point – that US forces are stretched very thin by their current responsibilities, and that this is a serious problem – may be uncomfortably close to a truth they don’t want to acknowledge.
I saw the Joint Chiefs’ letter as profoundly political. I’m not a bit surprised that a representative of the DAV doesn’t see the cartoon as a problem. Most American vets, disabled or otherwise, earned their status defending American freedoms. Freedom to criticize the Pentagon is a pretty central one of those freedoms. Efforts by guys with scrambled egg on their hats to browbeat the Washington Post might not sit well with them, whether they agree with the point of the cartoon or not.