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In civilized societies, if you are offended by a cartoon, you do not burn flags, take up guns and raid buildings, chant death to your opponents, or threaten suicide bombings.

You write a letter to the editor.

Here’s a Tom Toles cartoon that our military leaders did not appreciate:

Here’s a letter to the editors of the Washington Post that all 6 of the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent this week in response (click here for full-size .pdf file):

The letter from the four-star generals and admirals reads in part:

We were extremely disappointed to see the editorial cartoon by Tom Toles on page B6 in the January 29th edition. Using the likeness of a service member who has lost his arms and legs in war as the central theme of a cartoon is beyond tasteless. Editorial cartoons are often designed to exaggerate issues–and your paper is obviously free to address any topic, including the state of readiness of today’s Armed Forces. However, we believe you and Mr. Toles have done a disservice to your readers and your paper’s reputation by using such a callous depiction of those who have volunteered to defened this nation, and as a result, have suffered traumatic and life-altering wounds…

…While you or some of your readers may not agree with the war or its conduct, we believe you owe the men and women and their families who so selflessly serve our country the decency to not make light of their tremendous physical sacrifices.

As the Joint Chiefs, it is rare that we all put our hand to one letter, but we cannot let this reprehensible cartoon go unanswered.

It will be interesting to see if and how the newspaper and Toles respond.

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Two Babes and Brain hears that a response may be coming tomorrow.

Feb. 2 update: Go here.