Customer Reviews

Get Your War On II

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

You know what I've noticed? At the bottom of every review on Amazon, it asks "Was this review helpful to you?" and lets you click on yes or no. Yet perusual of books on any controversial subject - especially politics - leads me to suspect that people often vote yes/no on "do I agree with the politics of the reviewer?"

I'll try to review GYWO2 in a way that at least will be helpful for anyone, whether you saw "Farrenheit 9/11" or whether you never trust anyone not on Fox News.

This book collects a comic strip, which is entirely 3-panel strips using clip art. Presumably Rees wanted to do a comic but can't draw. The illustrations all show office workers talking, with a few variations, enough to suggest Rees is trying (and partly succeeding) to use the comics medium fully. It also suggests an "everyman perspective" for the material. All of the strips are on politics, almost always foreign policy - as the title suggests, the war on terror is the main focus. Here's a typical one-liner from this collection:

"Will future historians describe Bush's foreign policy as the Grand Theft Auto school of diplomacy?"

If you found that amusing, this looks like the book for you. If you're a conservative who found that to be a pile of crap, then definitely avoid this book, because it is pretty much all scathing criticism of the Bush administration.

A couple other factors that might influence your purchasing decision: this is also not a book for those who feel uncomfortable/offended by lots of swearing. Also of note, the author's royalties go to a charity that clears landmines from Afghanistan and other areas (though you could just contribute to them directly if you like).

After completing a tour of duty in Afghanistan, I read David Rees' "Get Your War On" and was not overly impressed; I wrote a decidedly unenthusiastic review of the book. I read that book's follow-up, "Get Your War On II" about two years later, after completing a tour in Iraq. Either Rees' writing has gotten sharper, or I just became more receptive to his work, because I think that GYWO2 is brilliant. This book of cartoons maintains the general format and style of its predecessor, and also follows up on the original's subject matter. The cartoons generally depict a bunch of anonymous white-collar office drones who discuss the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other topics from early 21st-century headlines.

Rees has crafted a richly ironic volume of political satire that is full of profanity and scathing dialogue. Nobody is safe--along the way his nameless characters mock George Bush, Tony Blair, Halliburton, Fox News, Fidel Castro, Condoleezza Rice, Joe Lieberman, _The New York Times_, Ahmad Chalabi, Tom Daschle, North Korea, Pat Robertson, Ted Koppel, and many other entities. Rees covers many topics: gang rape, abortion, genocide, anthrax mailings, the search for WMDs in Iraq, political saber-rattling over steroid abuse, the 9/11 commission, the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, proposed designs for the new World Trade Center, and more. Adding to the pungent flavor of the book are the characters' many absurd pop culture references--Paris Hilton, 2 Live Crew, _Tiger Beat_, _The Family Circus_, etc. It's all made even funnier by the generally bland appearances of Rees' characters.

Rees is at his best when he is deconstructing and reshaping the jargon and catchphrases of the post-9/11 U.S.: "Axis of Evil," "Coalition of the Willing," "Freedom Fries," and many more. He offers a lacerating meditation on the use of language as a propaganda tool. His characters exchange some harsh and thought-provoking comments on language--I love it when one drone chides another, "Parsed much?" Although most of the characters are his typical anonymous office workers, this book also features "Uzbekikitty," an absurd yet tragic metaphor for U.S. coalition building in the War on Terror. At times Rees also plays with and mocks his own format. Among his routines in the book is a series of biting knock-knock jokes.

Despite the humor of the book, I consider it a serious interrogation of the language, icons, orthodoxies, and pieties of the post-9/11 era. Rees doesn't just slaughter America's sacred cows--he drops a nuclear bomb on them. GYWO2 could serve as a scalding counterbalance to the many inspirational and heroic narratives that have been spun from the Global War on Terror. For a great companion text I recommend "Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq," by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber.

. . . a bagfull of monkeys drafting foreign policy. And the most straightforward political commentary since Tom Paine. On speed. If you have even one cynical bone in your body (you know -- that sense of slightly defeatist but NOT defeat-ED humor that's produced when you actually perceive the breadth of incredible social possibility utterly pulped by realpolitik "reality"), GET THIS BOOK. You will laugh 'till you pee. And you'll register to vote again the very next day. Three times, probably.
Guarantee it.

Just like the first Get Your War On, this collection made my day. This book is perfect for people with a short attention span and left leaning politics.

During 9/11 and the subsequent invasion in Afghanistan, David Rees was a temporary employee at Martha Stewart Omnimedia (Probably not the best place for a long term career). He then started a cartoon strip that has been called the intelligent response to the War on Terrorism. Anyone who has ever worked in a cubicle will immediately identify with these cubicle denizons who spend their life on the phone solving the world's problems.

The book, printed in the signature red ink it is a collection of cartoons that would otherwise be lost in the day to day trash with the newspaper. And for those who don't live where this strip is available, here is a single dose of wisdom on the Antrax scare, sovereignty in Iraq, and more.

David Rees has done it again--provided us with just the sharp-edged comic relief we need in troubled times. He did it with Afghanistan in the first Get Your War On, and this book is even funnier, more ambitious as it tackles Iraq, weapons of mass destruction, and George W. Bush.

It's a neat trick, getting people to laugh at incredibly depressing observations.

This comic is the funniest thing on the planet, bar none. The sarcasm is so intense, this book may leave burn marks on your coffee table. I'd never stop laughing at his jokes, if I wasn't already so busy vomiting at the prospect of another Bush administration.

Give them something worth tracking:

"You know who I've really come to like in all of this? John Ashcroft. The guy just gives me a good feeling...Man, these are some powerful antidepressants. Even my smiles are smiling." ~ D. Rees

No one these days does political satire as savagely and as honestly as David Rees, creator of Get Your War On. Be sure to get books one and two, and read the newest strips online on his website as well. He says the things that some of us are afraid to say out loud, and uses profanity at exactly the right time, a la Deadwood. If you want the truth about American foreign policy, the White House, Iraq and more, read Rees!