Someone is held accountable for screwing up in the conduct of the war in Afghanistan! Oh wait, it's only in the funnies.

You probably have to be a regular Doonesbury reader to appreciate just how big an, er, disappointment young Jeff Redfern has been to his folks, Washington Post reporter Rick Redfern and Washington lawyer and political activist Joanie Caucus. Somehow, however, Jeff managed to graduate from Walden College, to the consternation of former roommate and fellow screw-up Zipper Harris (nephew of Zonker, the legendary tanning champion), who has now taken to calling him "Diploma Boy." And somehow Jeff slipped into an internship with the CIA, which turned out, well, somewhat problematically.

Since graduation, Jeff has returned to the parental cocoon, where he has been mostly sleeping, claiming to be waiting for his CIA posting, which of course he can't talk about. Yesterday Rick guessed that his son had lost his job. Today the conversation picks up where it left off yesterday:

RICK: You already lost your job?

JEFF: No, I didn't "lose" it. I just wasn't offered a position. When I was interning in Afghanistan, I launched a Hellfire missile by mistake, so I got a bad write-up from my station chief.

RICK: Wait a minute. Someone held you accountable for messing up?

JEFF: Yeah. Why?

RICK: If Bush knew, he'd be furious.

JOANIE: Who can we call?

JEFF: Mom! No! He has enough problems.