Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq

Those who found themselves agreeing with Greg Pallast's superb The Best Democracy Money Can Buy won't be at all surprised to read further claims of the huge disparity between the lip-service paid to American ideals of freedom and democracy by the current administration and the cynical, self-serving and hypocritical actuality of American foreign policy under that administration. The authors ask why the administration continually insinuated--despite evidence to the contrary--that there was a link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda while ignoring the evidence showing clear financial links between the Saudis and Osama bin Laden?

The answer, the authors persuasively suggest, is that the administration was knowingly and successfully using familiar strategies of war propaganda to manipulate the public mind and to build support for the war. It is no accident, they suggest, that a majority of Americans were, and remain, misinformed about crucial political, economic, military, and historical facts: "through a steady drumbeat of allegations and insinuations from the Bush administration, pro-war think-tanks and commentators--statements that were often false or misleading and whose purpose was to create the impression that Iraq posed an imminent peril."

But the book doesn't just make claims about greed, cynicism, superficiality and hypocrisy at the highest levels of government but points the finger at an American press that, they say, parrots the pronouncements of the powerful and encourages people to be stupid with pseudo-news that works on an emotional level and works also to silence and discredit "traitorous" opposition to the government line. In fact, the authors suggest, the mass media, public relations, advertising and terrorism all have in common a one-sided approach to communications, which they describe as a "propaganda model" because it often manipulates us on a primitive level, appealing to emotional symbolism. This short, clearly written, succinct, analytically sharp, persuasive and depressing book is well worth the read. --Larry Brown

My fears were totally unfounded. Inside I found one of the most readable, most well researched and most serious books I have read on this subject.

So, on to content. It's scary. Very scary. The level of spin doctoring, propaganda and was marketing is so frightening and overwelming that nowadays it is all but impossible to get a correct news piece from the main media sources. The quantity of news pieces broadcast in the US, be it TV or newspapers, is also flagging, leading to a huge gap between Americans' and Europeans' and Muslims' perceptions of the so called war on terrorism.

The funny thing is that much of the book could have been written by someone who is politically neutral or even right-wing: while facts are indisputable, especially when the sources are official, only some of the interpretations and a full chapter at most ("Doublespeak", after George Orwell's 1984) could have been written by the left wingers that I suppose the authors are.

So this book has many different edges, depending on your context. If you're a Bush supporter buy this and you'll think again; if you're against Bush's war on terrorism then this book will also have a lot of new things for you; f you're undecided, look no further: this book will tell all that there seems to be worth knowing about the lies and deceiving behind "Bush's war".

The funny thing is that, as a fellow Amazon client says about this book, you'd better read it in chunks otherwise you'll feel so disgusted with so many inconvenient truths. I myself read this in 6 days and am so "full" of information I just had to go and read something lighter. So it's fiction this time.


Essential Reading!   November 17, 2003
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

The media treatment of the wars in the Gulf has sanitised these events for mass consumption and played a large part in determining public opinions.

This book goes into detail on how the United States military campaigns are now stage-managed by PR companies. Cameras, newspapers and soundbites are now as important as bullets, missiles and fighter planes in the arsenal of the modern army.

Don't expect the satirical polemic of Michael Moore, this is merely cool analysis of facts and methodologies.

Fascinating and disturbing.......


Already screaming out for an update!!   November 9, 2003
 10 out of 10 found this review helpful

This book should be devoured in chunks rather than slogging through from cover to cover. The reason for this is partly that I found the relentless revelations of media manipulation and right wing activism in the US almost unbearable at times.

It rips the lid off the malpractices and self-administered censorship which are bringing the US media (primarily television, but also the print and radio media) down to a level of baseless conjecture and blatant nationalist manipulation of its own citizens under the umbrella of "patriotism".

The story I found most irritating is a verbatim quotation of a Fox News TV chat show with Bill O'Reilly, showing the shameless treatment of his guest, Jerry Glick, a convinced Democrat whose father (equally Democrat) died in the 9/11 tragedy. Because Jerry dares to oppose the host's Rightist views, he is browbeaten and eventually silenced by having his mike cut before he can even outline any clarifying remarks in the debate.

The appalling postscript is extensive quotations from a web fansite of viewers gloating at the spectacle of this mauling, and saying they would have gone as far as killing the guest whose only "crime" was to offer an alternative way of looking at his country.

After reading this short but packed book with a heavy heart, I am astonished beyond belief that many right-wing commentators still regard the TV news channels in the US as "liberal". Although written as the Second Gulf War "ended", in light of subsequent events and the continued failure to find any WMDs in Iraq, I hope a Second Edition with a relevant update on the continuing propaganda war is included soon.

Read this book. It should warn us all that the rest of the world can never stay out of reach of a powerful country with a big chip on its shoulder..........