I found this cartoon on http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonview.asp?catref=mfnn207. It was published on 3/25/2011.
The caption in this cartoon says "Department of No One Could Have Anticipated." These words mean that the United States didn't intend to get involve in so many foreign problems, but in the end still got involved in all of them. Hence, no one could have anticipated the involvement.
In this cartoon, the symbol of shattered bricks are used to represent the United States are or was involved in. The door in the cartoon represents where all the involvement came from. What I think the artist means is he wants people to know that the United States is heavily involved in a lot of things, where most of the things turn out bad.
The action taking place in this cartoon is the United States get involved in a lot of international matters and issues.
The message of the cartoon is being involved in a lot of things is never good because you are not focused on just one thing. Because the United States is too involved in a lot of things, it ends up not solving any or most of the situations it's in.
The ideological perspective here is that of conservative nature because the author obviously wants the United States to isolated itself from other countries, without offering much aid or help to foreigners.
This cartoon relates to a current political event because most of the events in the cartoon are current problems the United States are involved in, such as the conflict in Libya and Afghanistan. This relates to our in class discussion because we briefly talked about how the United States is too big on government and its involvement in foreign affairs.
Satire and irony influence the topic covered in this cartoon because it further exaggerates the problems the United States are involved in.



