War Dispatches To 'Doonesbury'

"We originally thought of [calling the blog] 'Hotwash,' " he says to Steward in the taxi ride to the VA.

Steward nods. Hotwash is an expression for the first reports of an action on the battlefield. But "The Sandbox" works, too, Steward says.

"I just got back from the Sandbox," he says, which can refer to either Afghanistan -- "the Stan" -- or Iraq. "There's a big beach in both, and there's no ocean over there."

Steward says he's now training Guard troops bound for the Stan. Trudeau asks if he can get a video copy of Steward's presentation. Steward says, "I've already told you more than what I've told most regular civilians!"

During a break from signing books to eat sandwiches in the VA's canteen, the talk turns to latrine graffiti.

"One article I want to write but I haven't yet is the best Port-a-Potty lines I ever read in Iraq," says Powell. "Chuck Norris is huge. Everywhere you go, in every Port-a-Potty."

Chuck Norris?

Trudeau pulls out his pen and a little notebook and begins jotting.

Powell continues, "My favorite one is, 'Chuck Norris is . . . right behind you!'"

Trudeau turns to his editor and collaborator on the book and the Web site, David Stanford, and says: "I think there's a book there. Chuck Norris graffiti!"

Norris does have a cameo in the book, as the little Chuck Norris action figure on the back cover that Steward took with him and posed with assorted weaponry in Afghanistan. Now his son Jon, about to be deployed, will carry the Norris doll into battle.

Every war has its styles of irony, its pop-cultural reference points, and they are part of the reality portrayed in "The Sandbox" by a lineup of accidental writers.