"If you don't succeed, try and try again"

This political cartoon, created by Kevin “Kal” Kallaugher, uses elements of caricature: satire, personification, irony, and comedy to describe the ongoing violence between Russia and Chechnya.

Since the beginning, in 1858 when Russia conquered Chechnya, the two countries have been at war. Every year their history of violence, terror, and disagreement has escalated with each act of terrorism or military strike, back and forth un- ending. Stalin first deports most of the Chechens to Siberia in 1944, and then later the population is restored to Chechnya in 1957 by Khruschev.

Fanning the fire, the past violence and mal- treatment, sparked the major issue present today, when after the fall of the U.S.S.R. in the early 90s, Chechnya stated its independence, which was shot down by Russia, concluding in Russian troops invading Chechnya to quell the movement of independence, murdering hundreds of thousands – most civilians.

As a result of the 20- month war, hostilities between Russia and Chechnya continued to occur, whether the Chechen rebels help Russians hostage or the Russian troops retaliated with military force.

Besides the 4 years of shaky peace 97’ – 99’, the war for Chechen independence surged and the violence intensified into nightmares or corruption and discrimination. Terrorist attacks on Russia were discriminately blamed on Chechnya, and Vladimir Putin, launches military campaign to “quash terrorism”. In 2004, one of the worst moments in the history of the war between Russia and Chechnya result in terrorists taking hostage of a school in North Ossetia, resulting in hundreds of thousands dead – most children, concluding that this bitter war that’s still continuing leaves nothing and no one untouched by it’s tragedy.

The cartoon depicts a sullen man, presumably Putin, as marked by his brief case, lectures a huge bear that is personifying the country of Russia, saying “we need to put our foot down”, while the bear ironically responds “…tried that…” because the cartoon shows that there is a porcupine personifying Chechnya, painfully stuck to the bear’s foot that depicts the results of the first time Russia tried to “put their foot down”.

The cartoon’s overall message comments and highlights the stupidity in the strategy influencing the war, which seems to take the outlook of “if you don’t succeed, try and try again”.