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The Onion on the invasion of Iraq

The geniuses at The Onion put together an atlas of the world, Our Dumb World, and just about every page of it is hilarious. It must have taken a ton of time and manpower and research to make it. Every country of the world is profiled and summarized, with an average of a country a page (except for the United States section—each state got its own paragraph or two).

Basically, they took one stereotype or joke about every country and ran with it for the entire profile, pretty much beating it into the ground. This takes away from some of the other various and sundry things that could be joked about with some countries, but it’s still amazing how funny, clever, and subtle this book is. I was disappointed they didn’t have a page-a-day calendar for 2008 (I think), but I am so glad I got this instead.

I just read Iraq’s profile last night, and, of course, it was hilarious. The title of the profile is “They Had It Coming.” The introduction to the profile reads:

In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq in retaliation for countless atrocities committed by the nation, including the gassing of Kurdish villages, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the events of 9/11, the sinking of the Titanic, the Hindenburg explosion, and the Holocaust.

Although Iraq–U.S. relations became strained in 1963 when Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein assassinated John F. Kennedy, tensions reached a head on Sept. 11, 2001. On this day, the nation of Iraq flew two commercial airliners into the World Trade Center, killing thousands of Americans in the worst attack on U.S. soil since Iraqi fighter pilots bombed Pearl Harbor.

Despite criticism for its ensuing invasion, the U.S. claimed that stabilizing Iraq was the only way to prevent another nuclear attack like the one carried out on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by Iraq.

The U.S. plans to continue occupying the nation until Iraq either returns the kidnapped Lindbergh baby, or admits to all the acts of unjust violence for which it is responsible, including the Boston Massacre, a series of shark attacks in the summer of 1998, and the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Here is a hilarious Point–counterpoint op-ed published in the Onion that is surprisingly accurate, though still satirical. Libertarians often say the Onion publishes more truths, or at least more pointed truths and commentaries on our society, than any mainstream newspaper or news magazine.