Get Your War On: The Definitive Account of the War on Terror 2001-2008

Get Your War on

by David Rees

Since October 9, 2001, when David Rees posted eight comic strips on his website and called it Get Your War On, tens of millions of people have been entertained and horrified by his clip-arty office workers and their vociferous and profane commentary on the so-called War on Terror. From the first few days of Operation Enduring Freedom to the overhyped pseudo-success of the �surge”—years of fear, bewilderment, violence, and death—Rees has succeeded in depicting a country of grieving, angry, and confused citizens, feeling hatred for—and hatred of—the world beyond our shores. Get Your War On is a kaleidoscopic cavalcade of emotions and moods, including (but not limited to) despair, enraged bewilderment, grief (with a touch of loathing), ecstatic contempt, disgust, and nihilistic exhilaration. This definitive edition of Get Your War On combines strips from the first two publications with sixty-five percent new material created in the last three years.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, War, Politics, History, Humor, Comic Strips

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

David Thomas Rees is a cartoonist and humorist whose best-known work combines bland clip art with outrageous "trash talk" to incongruous effect.

Reviews

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious yet also maddening as you remember all of the horrible things that happened from 2001 to 2008.

[Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

HURRAH! Read it just in time for the upcoming elections and debates, where Republican Toolism is still on display proudly and stupidly!

Rees touches on things you may have forgotten in the Wall of Patriotism that was thrown at us after the towers fell. The abuse of civil liberties, the rush to privatization, the insane hypocrisies of the "Operation: Enduring Freedom" (or as one character calls it in the very first comic "Operation: Enduring Our Freedom to Bomb the Living Fuck Out of You"), all the hits are here.

You get quotes like "You can't make a freedom omelette without breaking a few international law eggs!" and "How did North Korea end up with nuclear weapons? Did Saddam Hussein fax them his?"

Worth every goddamn second you spend reading it...

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Rees' strip was a little burst of lacerating criticism and subversive sanity in the time before War on Terror-themed dissent became widespread. I liked it then, but was surprised by how impactful it still felt in 2014. The anthology format works well, emphasizing the crushing redundancy, the tragic repetition of miscreants making miscalculations, the folly of the clip art protagonists wearing their Santa hats year after year after year while we and our war blunder on.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scatheing, foul-mouthed assessment of the Iraq War cum Afghanistan War and (generally) the "War on Terror" done with mid-seventies clipart and Helvetica. Equal parts funny and pathetically sad; ultimately absolutely FUCKING BRILLIANT!

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

So funny, and sad, and angry-making.

If you're not going to pick up the book, flick through them on the internet http://www.mnftiu.cc/category/gywo/wa...

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like most strips, it's incredibly repetitive and hard to read in bunches. The clip art schtick also gets old pretty quickly. That said, it raises a lot of good points, the satire is often pretty good, and it probably felt like a nice dose of sanity in its era.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oof.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Has it really been so long? My friends are feeling a little weighed down by current events, the toxicity of the daily news sapping their Purity Of Essence. It is a refreshing tonic to remember how insane things used to be, and how crazy they stayed for so long. Rees is living in a world of language gone mad and rages against that as much as the events the diplomatic turns of phrase aimed to sanitize. Taibi makes much of this in a very smart introduction that is a brave attempt to say that Bush Derangement Syndrome was not a partisan subjective hysteria. There is a over-compensating need to refer to news reports and quotes from administration (US Executive primarily, though other countries make sporadic and equally Orwellian contributions) to frame the incredibly polite discussion we had about the useless slaughter of a decade.
I am too young to be saying this, but my children will never understand what it was like. Can you be nostalgiac for horror and disingenuous brutality? or is nostalgia reserved for things you MISS?

[Susan (the other Susan) · Rating 5 out of 5]

"You know who I've really come to like all this? John Ashcroft. The guy just gives me a good feeling.... Man, these are some strong anti-depressants I'm taking!"

In "Get Your War On," writer-comedian David Rees wrapped our pain in laughter. Brilliant, tragic, devastatingly funny and so terribly sad. Like Garry Trudeau's "Doonesbury" during the Vietnam and Watergate years, this anthology will be relevant for decades to come - because we'll still be living the repercussions of the horrors and the hubris.

[Andrew Kline · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thorough, funny, and honest account of the War on Terror. I laughed as often as I shuttered in painful remembrance. I was in high school and college during the duration of this comic, so I didn't really make a point of reading the news, and there were occasionally names and events I don't remember, but it doesn't really take away from the enjoyment of the comic. The tone varies between frustration, anger, disillusionment, and complete resignation, but it is able to maintain humor and never feels repetitive or overly depressing.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just got a copy of this. I remember reading these strips 2001-2005 or so and feeling like it was one tiny, hilarious voice of sanity in the sordid morass of the times. Today some of them read as rather dated; they were very topical and precisely attuned to what was being reported in the news at the moment. But still I'm glad to have it. As far as I'm concerned, it's an important historical document, and that's not low praise for a web comic.

Also, this edition contains a fantastic, biting introduction by Matt Taibbi.

[Zedsdead · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clip-art office drones talk on the phone, with the same half dozen illustrations used again and again. An exuberant, profane, funny critical depiction of America's response to 9/11.

I enjoy GYWO, but I'd previously read a better, abridged collection. This more comprehensive volume gets repetitive.

The introduction was a little irritating as it relied on a host of logical fallacies to make its case.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I missed these comics the first time around, and I'm glad to have read them, but readers should be prepared to relive all the misery and stupidity of Bush-era foreign policy. This is an important document of its times that's often more "angry" than "funny."

[April Como · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hi-lar-i-ous!!!! Definitely not for the easily offended, or for extreme conservatives!

[Burgersub · Rating 5 out of 5]

Expresses my outrage and weariness of the last seven years more clearly and sarcastically than I ever could have.

[Len Small · Rating 4 out of 5]

This might end up dated in a couple years, so read it now while the jokes still sting. At the very least, this is a reminded of the 'what the...??' reactions from the Bush years.

[Caleb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not really a graphic novel, but more of one than the other categories I created.

[Cris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to believe you can be this scathing and vulgar, but still this clever and intelligent... all in one.

[Katia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious. Reminds me that I need to be feeling even more moral and intellectual superiority over the sheep who removed their brains during the last 8 years.

[Zak · Rating 5 out of 5]

I almost forgot how messed up 8 years of the Bush administration made everyone. What crazy times those were. Thanks for reminding me of some of those amazing moments.

[Caleb Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This shit is fucking funny man. most ingenious use of stock art I have ever seen.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brutally funny, angry, incisive. Probably not for everyone.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biting and hilarious satire of the war on terror/iraq/afghanistan during the Bush years. Not to be missed!

[Autumn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bitter, funny, and horrifying. Just like the Bush years. Highly recommended.

[Celeste · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious and depressing!

[Kitap · Rating 4 out of 5]

My only complaint is that this series ended with the election of Obama in 2008, while the War on Terror [sic] is still with us.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read some of this in real time online, but it was interesting to re-read it with the hindsight that four more years removed gives you.

[Fabian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This really is the definitive account of the War on Terror, which, unfortunately, I took part in. Brilliantly insightful, and had me laughing out loud.

[Oriana]

Soft Skull rocks and David Rees is hilariously great and I can't wait to read this book.

[marcali · Rating 4 out of 5]

oh my, reading all these together- quite the flashback experience