Doonesbury cartoonist Gary Trudeau has once again pushed his comic into the debate over the war in Iraq.

Today’s strip ends with an apparent IED attack on one of Doonesbury’s longtime recurring characters, Ray Hightower. The African-American non-commissioned officer has been a regular part of the strip’s cast since meeting B.D. during a Gulf War storyline in the early Nineties. Most recently, Hightower has been the “spokesman” for Doonesbury’s milblog outreach, The Sandbox.

In Monday’s episode, Hightower is on a humvee patrol with his crew. He and the turret gunner notice a suspicious vehicle by the side of the road. But they’re unable to get the attention of the humvee’s driver, who is listening to music on his iPod. The final panel depicts a bright flash.

Today’s turn of events is likely to evoke memories of another starkly drawn strip: that of April 19, 2004, when B.D. was the victim of an Iraqi insurgent attack. Ironically, Hightower was in that episode, also, providing first aid to B.D. (who lost his leg –and trademark helmet — in the incident).

Since then, Trudeau had been deeply involved with soldiers recovering from injury in Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s recently released a book based on military blogging at the Sandbox, and is a frequent critic of Bush Administration policies in the Mideast.

With the exception of a 22-month haitus in the Eighties, Trudeau has been drawing Doonesbury as a daily strip since 1970. It appears in approximately 900 newspapers, and online at Slate.com.

Link: Doonesbury at Slate