Doonesbury.com's The War in Quotes,
by G.B. Trudeau, Oct. 1, 2008


(Click for Amazon book review)

BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

Doonesbury's creator, G. B. Trudeau, damns all of our leaders with their own words. In this thin volume, Trudeau collects up quotations used in his political comic strip over the years, and juxtaposes them to demonstrate the arrogance (or outright lies) of the Bush administration with regards to the Iraq War. The book is made less partisan by Trudeau's occasional portrayal of Democratic Congressional leaders as foolish complicity (or as willing pawns) of the Bush administration's war plans.

Trudeau neglects to bash one of the biggest perpetrators of the war lies: the mainstream press. Perhaps because he relies on the press for his livelihood, they are omitted from the pantheon of contradictions, and are not made to look like patsies alongside the politicians. We, the people, suffered from lies from both the politicians and the press about the Iraq War; and we, the taxpayers, will be paying to clean up after them for decades to come.

One reads this volume in hindsight from 2009 with a feeling of tragic inevitability -- that our elected leaders, of both parties, led us into a war on false pretenses because they refused to listen to dissenting voices. One can only hope that we remember this lesson the next time around, since it is sure to happen again.

-- Jesse Gordon, jesse@OnTheIssues.org, January 2009

OnTheIssues.org excerpts:  (click on issues for details)

Homeland Security     Alberto Gonzales: 2002: Geneva Convention rendered quaint by war on terror.     Dick Durbin: Our actions at Guantanamo were like Soviet gulags.     Donald Rumsfeld: 2002: Requiring prisoners to stand 8-10 hours is not torture.     Donald Rumsfeld: Differentiate known's from unknown's.     Duncan Hunter: Gitmo prisoners are comfortable and well-fed; never tortured.     George W. Bush: Our enemy hates freedom; our enemy hates innocent life.     George W. Bush: Geneva Convention does not apply to Al Qaeda detainees.     Joseph Lieberman: Waterboarding is merely psychological; not real torture.     Joseph Lieberman: Waterboarding is merely psychological; not real torture.     Rudy Giuliani: Whether waterboarding is torture depends on how it's done.     Rush Limbaugh: Al Qaeda people would surrender to get treatment like Gitmo.

War & Peace     Chuck Hagel: 2002: Bush administration said they were not going to war.     Colin Powell: 2001: Saddam has not developed WMD capability.     Colin Powell: 2005: UN speech on Iraqi WMDs is a blot on my record.     Colin Powell: 2004: We don't have enough troops in Iraq.     Condoleezza Rice: FactCheck: No, CIA knew Al Qaeda planned suicide air attack.     Condoleezza Rice: We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.     Dick Armey: 2002: Iraq will be a quagmire that endangers domestic agenda.     Dick Cheney: 1994: If we take out Saddam, Iraq breaks up into quagmire.     Dick Cheney: 2003: Iraq occupation will last weeks rather than months.     Dick Cheney: 2003: American troops will be greeted as liberators.     Dick Cheney: 2005: Iraq is in the last throes of the insurgency.     Donald Rumsfeld: 2002: "Iraq has WMDs"; 2003: We never said Iraq had nukes.     Donald Rumsfeld: 2002: Iraq occupation will last 5 weeks or 5 months at most.     Donald Rumsfeld: 2003: Several hundred thousand troops is far off the mark.     Donald Rumsfeld: 2003: American troops will be welcomed by Iraqis.     Donald Rumsfeld: 2003: We know where WMDs are, around Tikrit & Baghdad.     Donald Rumsfeld: 2004: Remaining violence is thugs & pockets of dead-enders.     Eric Shinseki: 2003: Iraq success requires several hundred thousand troops.     George W. Bush: 2001: Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.     George W. Bush: 2008: Iraq occupation could last 10 years.     George W. Bush: May 2003: Combat operations are ended; mission accomplished.     George W. Bush: 2003: We will find WMDs; Saddam destroyed some & hid some.     George W. Bush: 2003: If they want to attack us in Iraq, bring 'em on.     George W. Bush: Mission evolved from WMDs to stability to nation-building.     Hillary Clinton: 2002: Saddam gave aid to Al Qaeda terrorists.     Joe Biden: 2002: Waiting to be sure of Saddam danger could be too late.     John Edwards: 2002: Saddam has WMD and is trying to get nuclear weapons.     John Larson: 2002: Iraq invasion will unite Islamic jihad against us.     John McCain: 2007: Encouraging signs of normalcy in Iraq.     Nancy Pelosi: 2002: No question Saddam has WMD.     Trent Lott: Sunnis and Shiites all look the same to me.

Click for quotations from other sources by: Alberto Gonzales Chuck Hagel Colin Powell Condoleezza Rice Dick Armey Dick Cheney Dick Durbin Donald Rumsfeld Duncan Hunter Eric Shinseki George W. Bush Hillary Clinton Joe Biden John Edwards John Larson John McCain Joseph Lieberman Nancy Pelosi Rudy Giuliani Rush Limbaugh Trent Lott