Mission Accomplished! Or How We Won the War in Iraq: The Experts Speak
by Christopher Cerf, Victor S. Navasky
Book Summary Information
Author: Christopher Cerf, Victor S. NavaskyIllustrator: Robert Grossman
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-03-25
ISBN: 1416569936
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Book Reviews of Mission Accomplished! Or How We Won the War in Iraq: The Experts Speak
Book Review: Good comedy, with malice toward some.
Summary: 5 Stars
If you think all conservatives are idiots, and want ammo to toss at war supporters, this is the book for you. This is a book you can judge just by the cover. It definitely belongs in the humor section, which also explains the inclusion of Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter as "Experts on the War in Iraq".
If you are in the mood for laughs, enjoy this book and read no further.
If you want a deeper review, I can tell you my friend lent me this book to give me "information" I apparently needed to know to be an informed voter. I think I learned something far more valuable along the way:
Q: What's the difference between a defender and a detractor?
A: Apparently, defenders make mistakes.
American involvement in Iraq has resulted in a number of huge mistakes:
* There turned out to be no weapons of mass destruction.
* The insurgents were a bigger problem than first thought.
* The enemies imprisoned at Abu Graib were not treated with respect.
* Some money (in cash) entrusted to the CPA simply disappeared.
* Ousting all Ba'thists from the government introduced some chaos.
* It has taken too long to restore Iraq after the quick invasion and toppling of Saddam.
I've read other reviews for this book, and many talk about the spin our leaders put on these "lies". I don't think any estimate or prognostication can really be called a lie, since you can only lie when you actually know with certainty the correct answer to begin with. So in the case where you know for a fact no weapons of mass destruction exist in Iraq and you suggest to the country otherwise then I would say you lied. In this specific case, if true, Bush lied. In other cases where things did not turn out as expected, all you can say is a guess was proven wrong.
Speaking of spin, this book consists of "volumes" of mistakes, where each mistake is a collection of quotes followed by a statement of actual fact.
I'm all sure the statements of fact check out. Still, the quotes are quite obviously taken out of context, chosen and ordered to paint a picture in which these people could do nothing right.
For example, in the very first section of the book, "experts" suggest victory in Iraq will result in Iraqis viewing coalition forces as "Liberators". In fact, the book tells us, a poll of Iraqis taken 13 months later shows only 2% of the native population view the forces occupying their country as "Liberators".
So, clearly, everybody quoted was as an idiot, right?
In this example, many of the quotes reference Baghdad specifically or use the word "greet". I don't know how you can "greet" forces that have been present over the last 13 months. The book is silent about how Coalition Forces were actually greeted immediately following the fall of Baghdad.
See how two truths -- real quotes and real events -- make a wrong here in the authors' twisted suggestion? Get used to it.
I have read all of the quotes in the book. Some gems are repeated a second time just in case you missed them. The book uses a number of different devices: guilt by association; straw man arguments; out-of-order chronology; same general quote but made to different targets at different times; etc. However, the same basic pattern is repeated throughout: make fools of certain parties with the suggestive comparisons between what he/she said beforehand followed by the actual event or events that took place (the authors real work was in finding these quote-event pairs). If only each of the "experts" had perfect knowledge about future events, then this book wouldn't exist.
Now I for one am certainly not happy Iraq was invaded on "intelligence" that proved false. I'm also not happy mistakes were and are being made during our involvement, but I am also not consoled by a bunch of ninnies effectively saying "I told you so" after the fact.
For example, the book quotes Bush from the 2003 State of the Union address:
"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
The book then follows with an "In fact:" section which cites the Op-Ed piece in the New York Times by Joseph Wilson pointing out there was, in fact, no yellowcake sale.
We know Wilson was sent to assess this exact situation in Feb. 2002 and he gave his answer (which was apparently ignored by his superiors). So that's certainly bad.
But hang on a second. Wilson knew there was no yellowcake sale, and he knew Bush suggested in January 2003 that there was. So why did Wilson wait until June 2003 to speak up? By this time it was already pretty clear no weapons of mass destruction had been found.
Why didn't Wilson write in January or February of 2003 when his words might had a shot at avoiding the invasion of Iraq?
Did it take 6 months for him to come up with just the right editorial phrasing?
Are we to believe nobody would print his editorial before June 2003?
I guess he just sat back and watched events unfold until he could be certain he was not mistaken. If only defenders had this luxury.
Entertainment Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Beach Blanket Politics
The Truth (with jokes)by Al Franken
Dutton Adult; Published: 2005-10-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.99
Price in other shops:
Goodnight Bush: A Parodyby Gan Golan, Erich Origen
Little, Brown and Company; Published: 2008-05-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.53
Price in other shops:
The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him and Why Independents Shouldn'tby Cliff Schecter
PoliPoint Press; Published: 2008-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.24
Price in other shops:
New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observerby Bill Maher
Rodale Books; Published: 2006-09-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.50
Price in other shops:
The Worst Person In the World: And 202 Strong Contendersby Keith Olbermann
Wiley; Published: 2007-09-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.80
Price in other shops:
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book) Teacher's Edition: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inactionby Jon Stewart, The Writers of The Daily Show
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 2006-09-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
Mission Accomplished! Or How We Won the War in Iraq: The Experts Speakby Christopher Cerf, Victor S. Navasky
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2008-03-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Our Dumb World: The Onion's Atlas of the Planet Earth, 73rd Editionby The Onion
Little, Brown and Company; Published: 2007-10-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.96
Price in other shops:
I Am America (And So Can You!)by Stephen Colbert
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 2007-10-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.74
Price in other shops:
Young Dick Cheney: Great Americanby Bruce Kluger, David Slavin
AlterNet Books; Published: 2008-04-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.31
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalismby Naomi Klein
Picador; Published: 2008-06-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.97
Price in other shops:
The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religionby Matt Taibbi
Spiegel & Grau; Published: 2009-01-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.53
Price in other shops:
Goodnight Bush: A Parodyby Gan Golan, Erich Origen
Little, Brown and Company; Published: 2008-05-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
The Age of American Unreason (Vintage)by Susan Jacoby
Vintage; Published: 2009-02-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.95
Price in other shops:
The Post-American Worldby Fareed Zakaria
W.W. Norton & Co.; Published: 2009-05-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.39
Price in other shops:
Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalismby Kevin Phillips
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2009-03-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.94
Price in other shops:
The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Idealsby Jane Mayer
Anchor; Published: 2009-05-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.29
Price in other shops:
What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deceptionby Scott McClellan
PublicAffairs; Published: 2008-05-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.90
Price in other shops:
The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (American Empire Project)by Andrew Bacevich
Holt Paperbacks; Published: 2009-04-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.89
Price in other shops:
The Experts Speak : The Definitive Compendium of Authoritative Misinformationby Christopher Cerf, Victor S. Navasky
Villard; Published: 1998-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops: