You can think of the U.S. as a big lumbering dumb kid in a neighborhood of roughnecks. This big kid, whose initials are U.S., has a reputation for getting into trouble because he has a big heart and he welcomed most of these roughnecks into a club he helped to form. Yet, despite his big heart, the other kids like to play tricks on him.  Some use intellectual games.  Some call him names behind his back while sucking up to him. Others are violent and trip him up and if he is unwary, they plan to knock him down and then will swarm all over him to play “rough”.

But, a certain segment of these kids treats the U.S. as a “Kigme”.  A little history about this “Shmoo”-like character from the funny pages a half century ago might help to set the plot of the story that has unfolded in this century.  Al Capp was a cartoonist who helped America to see itself in the imaginary world of “Dogpatch” where stereotypical backward American poor folk lived. Mr. Capp skewered them as big-hearted rubes and the troubles innocent “Lil Abner” fell into made us laugh.  But, the important contribution that Capp showed the world was a unique cartoon invention. He created a creature he called a “Shmoo” (pronounced mo with a sh in front of it). It had no arms but two legs and served the world as an unending series of goodies that could be eaten. It was completely at the service of our race of humans and no part was wasted, for even the whiskers made excellent toothpicks. The Shmoos died happily by jumping into our frying pans to make either chicken or pork chop-tasting provender. Try to imagine a very small “Casper the Friendly Ghost” and you will recapture the image of the Shmoo.

Now, let us go back to our rough neighborhood and recall another Al Capp cartoon character.  This was his “Kigme”.  The Kigme looked exactly like the Shmoo but he existed to be an eternal victim. He served the function of being kicked around as the sacrifice for someone else’s sins. He had a sign on his back that said “Kick Me”.  He begged people to pick on him and seemed to have a place in the neighborhood as a target readymade for the tough roughnecks. As a metaphor, the Kigme works well in the context of America in the family of nations along with small groups that spring up as “dissidents”, “militants”, “rebels”, “terrorists” and generally any cell of murderers who hide their faces and hit innocent targets and run away. The innocents get in the way or are deliberately and randomly chosen to publicize the agendas of masked gangs of thugs who pose as heroes and martyrs.

Just picture the U.S. as a giant “KIGME” that all these rough kids love to pick on - even the “friends” of the U.S.  It is a big “game” where the blood of innocents is spilled because this lumbering giant cannot see what is happening because he is trying to be the policeman of the world in a game that is a caricature of “Cops and Robbers”. He is both the good and bad guy in this game and – he is NOT winning.