While just glancing through the albums containing important paper clippings that I have collected over the years, I came across one of the masterpieces by late cartoonist M. Kahil in Arab News of April 24, 1985 and also my letter in response to it the next day. I was particularly impressed by the cartoon that reflected the true state of the US foreign policy then.
Kahil proved himself beyond any doubt that he was a cut above all cartoonists in the Middle East then. When the cartoon appeared Ronald Reagan was the president of the United States and George Shultz was his Secretary of State. The cartoon was fittingly captioned: “Those who take risks for peace should know that the US will help them defend themselves.”
This was the placard Shultz was holding high in that cartoon and at the bottom we see “Sadat in the form of a military boot thrown away,” “The Shah in the form of a rotten tomato thrown away” and “Numeiri in the form of a rotten egg thrown away.” These are the personalities who were assured protection by the US for the risks they took but they were all ousted by the people. In fact “the risks for peace” what America meant then and now is making peace with Israel at any cost!
Kahil was highly talented and his cartoons depicted the current issues in the international arena. We had a habit of going straight to Opinion pages to see his cartoons first before looking at the front page.
It is a great consolation now to note that Migdad is trying hard to catch up with Kahil. His cartoon on Iran’s nuclear issue, in Arab News (April 11, 2013) was excellent. — S.H. Moulana, Riyadh
Kahil — the talented cartoonist
