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Mission Accomplished! Or How We Won the War in Iraq: The Experts Speak | 
| Authors: Christopher Cerf, Victor S. Navasky
Creator: Robert Grossman
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $11.53
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Rating:  20 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 1416569936
Dewey Decimal Number: 956.70443
EAN: 9781416569930
ASIN: 1416569936
Publication Date: March 25, 2008
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Mission Accomplished! Or How We Won the War in Iraq is the definitive collection -- systematically categorized, indexed, and footnoted for your convenience -- of authoritative misinformation, disinformation, misunderstanding, miscalculation, egregious prognostication, boo-boos, and just plain lies, about the Iraq War. "Never before has such a large and diverse group of experts been so unanimously in favor of a particular national policy as they were in the case of the U.S. invasion of Iraq," note Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky, who, as co-founders of the Institute of Expertology, the nation's leading purveyor of expertise on expertise, were uniquely qualified to assemble this impressive collection. "In the face of such a consensus, we had no choice but to ask ourselves, 'Could the iron law of expertology -- the experts are never right -- be wrong?'" At once an entertainment, a cautionary tale, a critique of mass media, a reference tool, and a postwar manifesto, Mission Accomplished! presents, as no book has before, the collective wisdom of all those who are presumed to know what they talking about on the subject of America's adventure in Iraq. As this hilarious, yet depressing, volume demonstrates, they don't. From MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." -- President George W. Bush, May 1, 2003 "[Insurgents] pose no strategic threat to the United States or to the Coalition Forces." -- L. Paul Bremer III, Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, November 17, 2003 "Military action will not last more than a week." -- Bill O'Reilly, The O'Reilly Factor, January 23, 2003 "I couldn't imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Hanukkah." -- President George W. Bush, at a White House menorah lighting ceremony, December 10, 2001
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 Good comedy, with malice toward some. September 20, 2008
Michael Winfield (Irvine, CA United States)
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.
A good summary account of the guilty and the stupid. August 19, 2008
M. Wang (CT United States)
This book is basically a catalog of speeches and comments given by proponents of the Iraqi War. They are, of course, both dumb and sinister, both naive and manipulative at the same time. Thus they make some very interesting read.
So Much for Experts! June 9, 2008
Dee Wolf (Jackson, NJ USA)
Mission Accomplished : How We Won the War in Iraq???
The so-called EXPERTS sure fooled themselves and some of the gullible.
Thanks to the authors for giving the real history and written facts of the IRAQ debacle and who predicted what. I'm still wondering how the prognosticators of victory still hold their jobs. A must Read for young and old alike.
 Light Snack, But Good June 8, 2008
R. brook (somewhere)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Fun and funny (considering the topic). Good information. The point made is that everybody, on both sides, lined up to regurgitate the party line on the war in Iraq. Bush administration lies became gospel through pundits, press, politicians and prognosticators. "Won't get fooled again"? - I guess we did. Worth owning if only as a reference point on Amerikan propaganda. Looks like we didn't destroy the iron curtain of misinformation, we just moved inside it.
A time to laugh about reality June 7, 2008
R. Rowland (Deltona, FL USA)
The Iraq war is serious and real. However, what "experts", political, industry and others have said, and continue to comment on is hiseterical -- and from another world. I have not stopped laughing yet!! While they "thought" that they could predict and correctly interpert what was happening, reality constantly proves otherwise. There are quotes from the book that will last forever --- "The next six months is critical" for example.
One wonders if truth will ever come to light. At least laughing helps not becoming depressed.
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