The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies, and the Mess in Iraq Review

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The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies, and the Mess in Iraq ReviewAs the promise of a quick victory in Iraq fades on the horizon, and the reality of a long, messy and costly occupation emerges, authors Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber's timely book "The Best War Ever: Lies Damned Lies, and the Mess in Iraq" examines the details behind the propaganda and the headlines that led to the war in Iraq. The authors' main point is that the wave of propaganda and lies continues, and while this is a multi million business that successfully 'sold' the war to Americans, the campaign isn't reality. Those who created the war, coveted the war, profit from it, and sold it are immersed in an incredible, dangerous fantasy of 'victory' 'liberty' and the spread of 'democracy.' Meanwhile those who chose to read this book are likely to be those who haven't drunk the cool-aid and are probably already opposed to the war for a variety of reasons. While I'd like to imagine that the book would help change the pro-war opinion, it probably won't happen. Nonetheless, the facts presented here will stun and sicken those already opposed to the war, and by the time the last page is turned, the anti-Iraq war reader will feel their opinions solidified.
The book details the PR campaign ($300 million over a 5 year period) launched before the war. It takes a particularly cynical mind to conduct surveys with a focus on "casualty aversion" in order to analyze how a war can be 'sold' to the people, but those surveys were conducted with the conclusion that Americans would swallow the Iraq war without too much squawking if they believed the war would "ultimately succeed." Experts on the pre-war Future of Iraq Project urged the administration to consider back up plans in case it didn't go smoothly and even predicted looting and the emergence of insurgency. This team was replaced, and the invasion of Iraq sailed ahead with Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz predicting that Iraq could "finance its own reconstruction." Fat chance of that happening. By late 2003, the occupation was costing America 1 billion a week, and by the end of 2005, 5.9 billion a month!
The book also examines specific linguistic choices made by the speechmakers and the media spokespeople in order to present a united, positive front on the subject of Iraq, and hand-in-hand with the word choices is the "bloodless" approach to the war--the suppression of photos, the lack of coverage of the horrendous wounds some of our soldiers are coming home with--plus the lack of coverage of the deaths of Iraqis.
There's a lot of 'old' material here--the Valerie Plame outing, the smear campaign against Wilson, the forged documents detailing the purchase of uranium oxide, etc. But in spite of the fact some of this is old news, the authors plug the material into the book to illustrate an overall pattern of the media burying stories and retractions while hyping rumours of supposed weapons findings in Iraq. The Iraq Survey Group (ISG) for example, with their "big impact" project and a generous budget of 300 million hunted for WMD in Iraq but couldn't discover anything. But no matter--because the lack of weapons led to a U.S. intelligence theory that Saddam deliberately acted suspicious to 'dupe' America. The twists and turns of the propaganda used for this war would be hilarious if it were fictional--but it's not--it's real--and people are dying because of it.
One of the best sections of the book covers the arguments that led to the war, and includes quotes from those who predicted invading Iraq would be a piece of cake ("I really do believe we will be greeted as liberators"- Cheney). New arguments have been created for remaining in Iraq, and once again by putting this all in print, the authors illustrate an insidious pattern of shifting propaganda. The authors successfully debunk all the arguments for the war--including the flypaper theory, and instead argue that it's time for damage control. The book includes scrupulous footnotes and an index--displacedhumanThe Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies, and the Mess in Iraq Overview

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The Progressives' Handbook: Get the Facts and Make a Difference Now, Vol. 1: US Weapons of Mass Destruction, Women's Issues, Education, Mainstream Media Review

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The Progressives' Handbook: Get the Facts and Make a Difference Now, Vol. 1: US Weapons of Mass Destruction, Women's Issues, Education, Mainstream Media Review
I consider myself informed but was stunned at the information presented here. I've read Wokusch for years and waited for this book, and it lives up to all expectations. She's got a way of making complex topics understandable and getting across how big political issues affect each of us personally.
The US Weapons of Mass Destruction chapter is amazing, and should be mandatory reading for all Americans. I don't think anyone else has brought out so much information about US biological/chemical/nuclear weapons programs before. Readers will be stunned at how much money is being diverted to these secretive programs and how much danger they pose to all of us.
The Education chapter comprehensively covers threats to American public education. As Wokusch writes: "Put it all together and the Bush administration's scam seems clear: force public schools to meet impossible demands through NCLB testing, don't give them enough money to make the required changes, and then question the patriotism of anyone who disagrees. Shut down the many schools which inevitably fail and offer vouchers as the solution, thereby privatising education and mandating that taxpayers fund religion in the classroom. Nifty way to institutionalize huge corporate profits with almost no accountability."
The Women's Issues chapter is a great review of rollbacks in women's rights under Bush, with witty subsections like "Back to the Kitchen, Betty" and well-documented facts. It's worth buying the book just for the Mainstream Media section on Jeff Gannon alone ("Snow job or blow job?"). Hysterical.
I really enjoyed reading this book. Wokusch describes the problems America is facing but then gives tons of ideas for how each of us can make the situation better. Can't wait to start reading Volume 2.The Progressives' Handbook: Get the Facts and Make a Difference Now, Vol. 1: US Weapons of Mass Destruction, Women's Issues, Education, Mainstream Media Overview

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The Future of Media: Resistance and Reform in the 21st Century Review

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The Future of Media: Resistance and Reform in the 21st Century ReviewThere is a simmering undercurrent of media activism brewing out there amongst the public. Plenty of regular folks are getting fed up with the corporate consolidation of media outlets, with the resulting sameness of content, the relentless advertising and push for profitability, and the disappearance of localism and dissenting viewpoints. Though this book is unlikely to be a widespread influence on the general public, this is exactly the type of screed that can get its readers interested in learning more about the severe and growing problems in the American media, and to think about making a difference as media activists. Supervised by the leading academic expert on such matters, Robert McChesney, this book collects essays and research on the political and economic forces that have resulted in the sorry state of today's radio, TV, newspapers, and internet access.
The biggest topics of discussion are FCC ownership rules and spectrum allocation; corporate collusion and the disappearance of competition; and constitutional and ethical issues such as the public interest standard and open access to information. Since this is a collection of essays by different experts and activists, there are a few missteps here, particularly a couple of entries in Part 2, which get much too specific and occasionally condescending when discussing exemplary local issues. Also, overall the chapters get rather repetitive as the different authors tend to build from the same basic information and concerns, especially FCC regulations and media ownership patterns (it's important to understand these things of course, but some editing of repetitive statements in this book would have been an asset). The tail end of the book gets into more detailed issues and presents a few enlightening surprises in areas like community wireless networks and copyright law.
And finally, what makes this book a truly unique winner is the activism guide that makes up about the last 70 pages. While some of the recommendations are a bit obvious and are sometimes overly idealistic, this guide for budding activists in media democracy should prove to be incredibly useful for those who are tired of the watered-down and lowest-common-denominator media, which only talks about things that are important for corporate and political power elites. The push for media democracy is an emerging art form, and watch for it to grow significantly in the near future. [~doomsdayer520~]The Future of Media: Resistance and Reform in the 21st Century Overview

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