Trump’s golf game metaphor for war in Mark Knight’s take on Iran

This week we unfortunately saw the world plunged into yet another war. The United States and Israel launched missile attacks on Iran and the regime* of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran has been ruled by an Islamic religious theocracy* since the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and the overthrow of the Shah of Iran, Mohammed Riza Pahlavi.

Sadly the revolution did not bring about a better way of life for the Iranian people, with the country fighting a long and bloody war with Iraq (1980-1988), followed by the establishment of a fundamentalist* religious government that would not tolerate Western ideals* and practices.

The Iranian revolutionary government also despised the existence of Israel and sought to undermine* and ultimately destroy the Jewish state. It hoped to achieve this goal through what are called “proxies*”. These are groups that act on Iran’s behalf but are not part of the Iranian government, although they are funded and armed by the regime. These include multiple listed terrorist* groups including Hezbollah* in Lebanon, Hamas* in Gaza, the Houthis* in Yemen.

Billions of Iran’s oil revenue has been funnelled to these terrorist groups to carry out attacks – and not just on Israel. More recently, Australia was on the receiving end of a terror attack, when Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps organised the firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne.

Even though President Trump made an election promise to end the “forever wars”, he decided to act and attack the rogue state of Iran in a bid to end its funding of terror acts around the world, halt its nuclear program and oust the Ayatollah*, who had ruled the Islamic state since 1989.

Trump also wanted to support the protest movement in Iran that had seen tens of thousands of its people killed by the regime for protesting against the harsh Islamic government and its failing economy. Trump felt the Iranian leadership was vulnerable and decided to act.

I had to draw a cartoon for the newspaper on the first few days of the missile attacks and I wondered how I might illustrate what was going on. I also wanted to caricature* the American president and his unconventional style of leadership.

One of the things that President Trump loves is golf. He regularly plays the game even at the age of 79. He owns golf courses and golf resorts. In fact, he directed the attack on Iran not from the situation room* in the White House but from his Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Florida. That gave me the idea that perhaps I could have him “teeing off” on Iran.

So I sketched the President taking a big swing and teeing off down the fairway* towards the pin that was Iran and its leadership. In news reports, we learned that on the first day of the campaign, the bombing had taken out the Iranian leader and his entire leadership team, who were all together in a meeting. In the cartoon, the Trump shot lands on the green* in the distance, not with the “plop” of a golf ball, but with a terrifying explosion.

His playing partner and ally in the attack on Iran is Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, who in the cartoon looks to be getting ready to tee off himself. Their golf cart has golf bags in the back, not with clubs but missiles, to illustrate the war that is about to be launched. Even though the cartoon is illustrating the violence of war no matter how just a cause may be, it is also painting a picture of President Trump’s unusual style and approach to the matter: to him, it’s just another round of golf.

Other little touches in the cartoon are the sand traps which you can see down the fairway. These traps symbolise the former military campaigns waged by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan that can only be described as failures. Beware, Mr Trump. Even though the majority of Iranian citizens and its diaspora* in foreign countries overwhelmingly support the overthrow of the religious extremist Islamic government in Iran, it is very easy to hit your golf ball into the rough, or into a sand bunker, and never see it again on the tricky metaphorical golf course that is the Middle East.

POLL

GLOSSARY

• regime: a particular government or a system or method of government
• theocracy: a particular government or a system or method of government
• fundamentalist: someone who believes in traditional forms of a religion, or believes that what is written in a holy book, such as the Islamic Koran or Christian Bible, is completely and literally true
• ideals: principles, ideas, or standards that seem very good and worth trying to achieve
• undermine: to make someone less confident, less powerful, or less likely to succeed, or to make something weaker, often gradually
• proxies: a person or group authorised to act on behalf of someone else
• listed terrorist groups: under the Criminal Code Act 1995, Australia’s Governor-General may make regulations listing a terrorist organisation if the Australian Federal Police (AFP) Minister ​is satisfied that the organisation is directly or indirectly engaged in preparing, planning, assisting in, or fostering a terrorist act or advocates a terrorist act
• Hezbollah: powerful in Lebanon, Hezbollah operates as both a Shiite Muslim political party and militant group
• Hamas: controlling Gaza, Hamas is a militant Palestinian Islamic organisation that opposes Israel, including by acts of terror
• Houthis: also known as Ansar Allah (“supporters of God”), are an armed fundamentalist Islamic group that control most parts of Yemen
• situation room: a room or suite from which a political or military crisis is managed
• fairway: the part of the course where the grass is cut short between the tees and the putting greens
• the green: the small area of short grass on which people gently hit the golf ball into the hole
• diaspora: a group of people who spread from one original country to other countries
• metaphorical: not being real but representing some truth about a situation or subject

EXTRA READING

Middle East: What is happening?

Slippery tentacles of terror snipped

‘Peace in our time’ blast from past

QUICK QUIZ

1. How does Mark define Iranian “proxies”?
2. Which terrorist organisations are known to be funded by Iran?
3. Why did Mark use golf and a golf course to illustrate the US and Israel’s attack on Iran?
4. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had ruled Iran since what year?
5. Who is the Israeli President?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Values, identities and actions
Study today’s Mark Knight cartoon and answer the following questions about the work:

What values does this cartoon invite us to think about?

Who is this cartoon speaking about? And who is this work trying to speak to?

What actions might the viewpoint in the cartoon encourage?

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
How can cartoonists like Mark Knight encourage or change people’s opinions on a controversial subject or topic?

Do you think his work needs approval before going to print? Explain your answer.

Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
Describe it
Look at the cartoon and make a list of five nouns that you see. Then describe those five nouns with five adjectives. Now add a preposition to those five nouns and adjectives.

Finally, choose your favourite bundle and put all the words together to make one descriptive sentence.

(For lower reading level articles, remove “add a preposition”)