''When you ride ALONE you ride with bin Laden: What the Government SHOULD Be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Terrorism'' () is a 2002 non-fiction

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

book by comedian and author

Bill Maher William Maher (; born January 20, 1956) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is known for the HBO political talk show ''Real Time with Bill Maher'' (2003–present) and the similar la ...

. Maher targets American citizens in this publication and notes that the American people are much too wasteful, and while Maher mainly critiques the methods the United States is using to fight the War on Terrorism, he also addresses issues such as oil dependency, environmental destruction,

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

, the

War on Drugs The war on drugs is a Globalization, global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of prohibition of drugs, drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the Unite ...

and foreign relations. In the book, Maher uses vintage World War II propaganda posters and manipulates the images to apply to the current issues facing the world and the United States, and he uses each image as the introduction to each new chapter and as the basis for several pages of writing. While written in a humorous style, the comments and suggestions that Maher makes that deal with global issues are serious and genuine. He mentions the

Bush Doctrine The Bush Doctrine refers to multiple interrelated foreign policy principles of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. These principles include unilateralism, preemptive war, and regime change. Charles Krauthammer first used ...

, and says that if he were president, countries that harbor terrorists who bring nuclear weapons into the US will be considered to have fired a missile at the United States. Maher concludes the book with his analysis of how the United States has behaved in comparison to other

superpower A superpower is a state with a dominant position characterized by its extensive ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined means of economic, military, technological, political and cultural s ...

s in the past, and pushes the position that the US would have acted "better" than any other nation in such a position of power. The title of the book alludes to a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

poster that read "When you ride ALONE you ride with

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

!" (see left), which suggested that automobile owners carpool to conserve

gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...

for the

war effort In politics and military planning, a war effort is a coordinated mobilization of society's resources—both industrial and human—towards the support of a military force. Depending on the militarization of the culture, the relative size ...

References

{{Bill Maher 2002 books Comedy books Cultural depictions of Osama bin Laden Books by Bill Maher Energy and the environment