Customer Reviews

After 9/11: America's War on Terror (2001- )

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Jacobson and Colon's After 9/11 is supposed to be a continuation of their first graphic depiction of the 9/11 Report. These two works are not of the same genre. The 9/11 Report was indeed factual and told of the major aspects of the 9/11 Report written by that Committee.
After 9/11, represents Jacobson and Colon telling us of life in the World after 9/11. This work, in which much of it I do agree with, is a look at the World with an editorial slant.
The Authors bring up the valid points of no WMD and the fact of the Bush administration gathering false intelligence to substantiate the preemptive attack of Iraq. What was the purpose?
Jacobson and Colon have correctly identified how America got into this mess and how we ostracized our Allies. Most of this adaptation is done very well.
The only area in which I believe the Authors fall short in was their detailing of the successes of the Surge. After all fair is fair. Tell it like it is, leave your prejudice behind. Tell the entire story including the parts which don't support your thesis.
Also some of the descriptive balloons were hard to read because the dark print blended into the dark background.
In all, I found this graphic narrative worth the read. This is not as good as the 9/11 Report, but I do recommend this graphic narrative.

You should heed the warning written on the opening pages, "The authors were especially inspired by The New York Times,...Time, Newsweek, and the New Yorker". The Graphic adaptation of the 9/11 Report was far superior, but in that work, the authors were grounded by the logic and reality of a non-partisan project. If you see the US efforts in Iraq as nothing but calamity and blunder, then this is an excellent piece of unfettered propaganda for you.

Consider that the chapter addressing the Surge (19 pages of 149 total) is nothing but a continuation of explosions, murder, chaos and horror. There is not a single positive image or statement describing the situation in post-Surge Iraq.

It's not hard then, to recognize that the entire book is obviously themed to reenforce the same stale talking points of the anti-war left: There were no WMDs; Bush was hell-bent on war from the get-go; every aspect of the operation was mis-managed or corrupt; Iraq distracted the US from Afghanistan, and all developing problems in A-stan were caused by efforts in Iraq; war crimes, torture, rape, sleep-deprivation, etc.

Accompanying the mediocre drawings of suicide bombings, IEDs, and dead soldiers, are depictions of the space shuttle Columbia burning up on re-entry, Hurricane Katrina, and the Virginia Tech shooting massacre. (I'm not kidding.) More apparent unintended consequences of liberating Iraq and ridding the world of one of the most evil despots that ever lived. But don't look in this book for Saddam to be described in such a way. This is a comic book indeed.