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.

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.

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.

I throughly enjoyed the book. It is amazing just how many half-truths and un-truths were exposed as well as the cupidity of all those responsible for allowing these things to occur. The book does not adopt any but a dispassionate review of what was actually said and in what context. It is an entertaining read, and in the vein of Swift, Twain, Vonnegut, it merely says what was said, interspesring the utterances with counterpointed facts and reality. Seems that "three to six months" was and is the litany repeated over and over. As political satire it accomplishes its aim. It is a remarkable accounting of the Administration's not-unsuccessful efforts to subvert and to redesign our democratic republic. In so doing, the service it provides is inestimable. The book delivers some satiric jabs, but on the whole the feeling of disbelief I experienced made me read and re-read page after page. As a History teacher I assign it as required reading now.

Think he got it about right. Maybe we'll get some straight talk when Obama takes over!!

The book is a page turner of quotes by people who knew or should have known what a mess was being created in Iraq. To this day, our politicians say they want to pull out of Iraq when possible so as to stop the suffering of Americans and their families -- never a mention of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians who were killed and maimed and the 3 million Iraqi refugees who fled the violence to other countries. The extreme arrogance of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the duping of Condi Rice and Gen. Powell is breathtaking. Even an author who I favored reading, Thomas Friedman, carried the administration's water with the continuous (every 6 months) "just 6 more months". If any administration deserved to be impeached, it was this one. But no peep out of the legislature? Because so many of them deserve to be impeached as well. I hate to quote Bill OReilly, but what Kool Aid do these people drink that they think they know so much they can spend trillions in taxes and new debt and interfere or destroy so many lives? This book is an invaluable reference book for the lies told by Bush and his delusional minions.

This is a somewhat amusing book, but not really worth a purchase. Anyone who is a political junkie will know most of the things said in it--it has nothing original. I put it in the catagory of something to keep on the bathroom bookshelf.

The Fall of the House of Bush: The Untold Story of How a Band of True Believers Seized the Executive Branch, Started the Iraq War, and Still Imperils America's Future

I've only skimmed through this book while sitting in the local B&N...so this isn't a comprehensive review of the book. What I noticed in a short period, however, was that this is not an indictment of 'expert-ology' (and the Bush Admin), as the authors intend; but rather a clinical case of 'meme-ology'. The authors apparently want us to believe that demonstrably true statements and predictions about the war are/were in fact false, thus proving the experts wrong. According to my quick count, however, all but one of the statements and predictions are true. For instance, according to any measuring stick the war was indeed a cake walk. We won it even more quickly than the first gulf war, and with fewer casualties than even the administration predicted. The mission to overthrow Hussein was accomplished in less than two weeks. Hussein was torturing his people. Hussein was funding terrorists. Hussein was refusing to cooperate with inspectors and was hiding his WMD program. Hussein was attempting to acquire nuclear technology and did have the intent to produce WMDs. Perhaps the weirdest claim the authors make is that our soldiers weren't greeted as liberators, when in fact the video of such a greeting ran on CNN for days.

These things are utterly factual.

And yet somehow some folks have convinced themselves that these

Weird.

"Mission Accomplished" documents an almost infinite number of people of all political persuasions (though mostly conservatives) and at high levels of government, media, and think-tanks, making statements either provably false, unlikely, or simply "me-too" support prior to, during, and post Iraq War II. The list even includes two of today's presidential contenders. Documentation even shows contradictions between varying members of the administration at about the same period of time.

"Mission Accomplished" also documents an incredible number of instances and individuals stating that "we have turned the corner in Iraq" or that "the next six months will be crucial in Iraq."

How could so many "experts" get it so wrong for so long? Would we be better off setting foreign policy with a dart board and roulette wheel?

"Mission Accomplished!", a terrific retrospective about how the Iraq venture failed, is an accurate and compelling look at the ongoing quagmire with humor on the side. Certifying those who framed the debate and carried out the execution of the war is assembled by authors Cerf and Navasky with an acuity that allows the reader to partake in the words of those who got us into this mess. Justice Brandeis said that "sunshine is the best disinfectant" and the words presented here are devastating in that exposition.

Nicely framed with quotes from Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and others, we are reminded about how this war never had a clear purpose, let alone a clear strategy. This book is an equal opportunity employer...Democrats get the royal treatment, too, as they should. Cerf and Navasky present quotes then give "in fact" responses...all well-cited. Then, in the lower right-hand corner of each opposing page they offer remarks about predictions on how those experts thought the war and reconstruction would go. Everyone will have a favorite...mine is Thomas L. Friedman. An expert of limitless self-confidence, he's reduced to words after one should eat one's hat.

I think the authors hit things just right when they talk about the cost of the war, both in human and economic terms. Sure, this is a book with a light-hearted nature, but when the text is revealed, we understand about the folly of this war and the Bush administration who gave it to us...an administration that has never figured out what to do with all the shattered pieces. "Mission Accomplished!" is a good and timely read, especially in an election year. I highly recommend it.

Keep MISSION ACCOMPLISHED handy as you read news publications or take in radio and television commentary. When some prognosticator talks up reasons for war - whether it regards Iraq or what may be in Iran - look up that person in this book, as chances are they've been wrong before.

While MISSION ACCOMPLISHED is an easy read, if nothing else pay attention to the quotes in reverse type at the bottom of each page. Names of purportedly qualified commentators such as Thomas Friedman show up again and again predicting a conclusion to the Iraq disaster. These know-nothings don't quit after missing the mark once or twice. From 2002 through 2007, dingbats such as Friedman, William Kristol and Michael Ledeen provide consistently wrong forecasts, as if they were weathermen on acid. But they're not predicting sunshine only to get caught in the rain. These smug blowhards are responsible for promoting this illegal, immoral war and occupation that's cost millions life and limb.

Why do the NEW YORK TIMES, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO and other news organizations continue to provide a forum to these clowns? I've heard of short memories, but the people at the TIMES and N.P.R. are more forgetful than a Republican under oath.

Next time your news sources present pundits blathering about things getting better in Iraq or how quick and easy attacking Iran will be, reach for MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. Then call or write to ask why they present as "experts" individuals who couldn't qualify for Psychic Friends Network.

Buy MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Keep MISSION ACCOMPLISHED handy as you read news publications or take in radio and television commentary. When some prognosticator talks up reasons for war - whether it's what's happening in Iraq or what may be in Iran - look up that person in this book, as chances are they're been wrong before.

While MISSION ACCOMPLISHED is an easy read, if nothing else pay attention to the quotes in reverse type at the bottom of each page. Names of purportedly qualified commentators such as Thomas Friedman show up again and again predicting a conclusion to the Iraq disaster. These know-nothings don't quit after missing the mark once or twice. From 2002 through 2007, dingbats such as Friedman, William Kristol and Michael Ledeen provide consistently wrong forecasts, as if they were weathermen on acid. But they're not predicting sunshine only to get caught in the rain. These smug blowhards are responsible for promoting this illegal, immoral war and occupation that's cost millions life and limb.

Why do the NEW YORK TIMES, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO and other news organizations continue to provide a forum to these clowns? I've heard of short memories, but the people at the TIMES and N.P.R. are more forgetful than a Republican under oath.

Next time your news sources present pundits blathering about things getting better in Iraq or how quick and easy attacking Iran will be, reach for MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. Then call or write to ask why they present as "experts" individuals who couldn't qualify for Psychic Friends Network.

Buy MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Even if you have no interest in the War in Iraq, you owe it to yourself to read this book. Here the inmates, in their own words, reveal the the extent and depth of their delusions. Never right, yet never uncertain, they happily lead the country into a disastrous war with nothing but their vivid imaginations to back them up. The justifications change, but not the need, first to go, and then to remain. No news discourages them. No facts upset them. They are right and they know it. In a sense the press bears ultimate responsibility for allowing this madness to go on unchallenged year after year. As the authors make clear, the next six months will be critical in determining the outcome of this adventure (after all, the experts have been saying that for years...). I wonder what else the inmates have been up to?

what a sad book. It shows how gullible people are. no memory of history in their own lifetime.

The Institute of Expertology has done it again! This timely book is clever, informative and highly entertaining, in spite of the subject matter. Cerf & Navasky have managed to capture every single absurd word uttered by this highly quotable group of "experts" running our nation and influencing our people. With the election right around the corner, buy a copy for yourself and get one for a friend. Let the words of the so called "experts" remind you that it's time for a change!

If I wasn't laughing so hard, I would be crying.

As our burgeoning economic woes overshadow the war in Iraq in the minds of prospective voters, the imperial hubris that has been the mainstay of the Bush administration's rhetoric seems to get less airplay these days. Even though people continue to die, the cable networks apparently feel that their viewers have grown tired of the war. That's why there is great value in picking up this piercing collection of direct quotes from the so-called experts on the Iraqi conflict by Christopher Cerf and Columbia professor Victor Navasky, satirists who pose as co-founders of the Institute of Expertology, the nation's leading purveyor of expertise on expertise. The breadth of the public statements presented here is astonishing in their deceit, ignorance and utterly blind ambition.

All the classic assertions are included here starting with George W. Bush's claim of success that provides the book's title. Donald Rumsfeld chimed in with recycled catchphrases like "Stuff happens" and "Freedom is untidy". Convinced that the Iraqis would greet U.S. soldiers as liberators, Dick Cheney confidently proclaimed that "The streets of Baghdad are sure to erupt with joy". Even though he expresses regret now, policy analyst Kenneth Adelman originally stated that he felt the war would be a "walk in the park", while political pundit Bill O'Reilly echoed similar feelings of invalid self-assurance ("Military action will not last more than a week"). More evasive statements have an insidious sense of gloom, such as Condoleezza Rice's declaration that "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud", or former White House speechwriter David Frum's covert remark that "This 'rush to war' should really be seen as the ultimate 'rush to peace'".

Reading all these together provide a strong reminder of the power of the propaganda machine at work with the current administration. The co-authors make note of the gradual shift occurring in placing more of the blame now on Iran for helping the al-Qaeda. There is a pervasive sense of black comedy over the entire tome, not surprisingly given the co-authors' previous collaboration, 1984's The Experts Speak : The Definitive Compendium of Authoritative Misinformation. Intriguingly, Cerf, the son of Random House publishing co-founder and "What's My Line?" panelist Bennett Cerf, wrote many of the early sing-along tunes on Sesame Street and produced Marlo Thomas' classic 1974 children's program, Free to Be You and Me.

It's truly a joy to see all these utterly depressing quotes gathered in one place for easy reference...

This book is a clever and comprehensive satire of the egregious prognostications made by the U.S. government, military, and media before, during, and after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It should be mentioned right off the bat that, unlike the hordes of "Bushisms" books and other anti-Bush administration literature, this is not just an irreverent or pithy crack at the neo-conservatives and predominantly right-wing pundits and politicians who supported our invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. Many liberal voices, including many writers for the New York Times and other publications, appear here as well. Every person quoted in this book is measured up to the facts on the ground both at home and in Iraq.

Not only is this book often startling and darkly humorous in its revelations, it is also an insightful portrait of the way the Bush administration's policies were fed to and digested by the media. If you like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, or are a voracious reader of the political blogosphere, this book is an amazing encyclopedia of the lies that were spun (and spun) every six months to keep us at war for the past five years.