Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq by Sheldon Rampton, John Stauber ISBN: 1-58542-276-2 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: July, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.3 (44 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Exposes all the lies that led to the war in Iraq.
Comment: If there is any book that should be used as evidence to impeach George W. Bush this is it. Rampton and Stauber have done an amazing job collecting and analyzing all the lies that were used by the Bush administration to convince the American people why we should go to war with Iraq. Some of this stuff is truly frightening. It's not the lies themselves but the fact that there was a deliberate PR campaign by the Bush administration to decieve the American people. After reading this book I don't believe for a second that President Bush got "bad intelligence" from the CIA. The Bush administration knew exactly what they were doing, and what they were doing is lying nonstop.
Just a few examples:
Bush lied about the Iraqi nuclear program. The UN inspectors confirmed that there was NO nuclear program, and that Iraq never tried to buy uranium from Niger. This was confirmed before Bush's 2003 state of the union adress.
Bush lied about Iraq al-Qaeda connection. It turns out that Mohammed Atta never met with any Iraqi intelligence agent before 9/11. According to Czech government officials and official FBI investigation Mohammed Atta was in the U.S. at the time the alleged "meeting" took place.
Iraqi ties to al-Qaeda and an Iraqi nuclear program were two fundamental reasons for war. But now we know that these allegations were false. The war in Iraq didn't help us at all in the war on terrorism and in fact, as Rampton and Stauber point out, it actually increased Anti-American hatred in the Muslim world. Weapons of Mass Deception should be required reading before the election.
Rating: 5
Summary: Score one for the Watchdogs
Comment: I've just finished reading this well-written and thought-provoking book that succinctly and meticulously lays out the case that the months (and years) leading up to the Gulf War were treated in the same way that advertisers use the Super Bowl to advance new products. The product was war with Iraq. The buyers were the American people. The Bush administration used PR professionals (including the Defense Department's spokesperson Torie Clarke) often in contradiction with the intelligence between offered by the CIA, the State Department and the FBI. The idea was the same kind of "branding" that gave us Coke and Nike. Say it often enough and people will believe that "It's the real thing."
It still boggles my mind that there exists a majority of Americans who believe that Saddam Hussein was behind the attacks on the World Trade Center. It saddens me that the population of this country is so easily influenced by market forces and not by hard facts. Research shows that the more informed the populace is, the less they support the actions of the Bush Administration in Iraq. What does that tell you? What is tells me is that the Weapons of Mass Deception used by the Bush administration successfully manipulated a patriotic audience into a war whose only benefit is the profit being made by Halliburton and the Carlyle Group, organizations that have lined the pockets of the highest officials in this nation including the Bush family and Dick Cheney (who still receives regular checks from Halliburton). And the flag-wavers think we're liberating a country. It's very sad because the winners in this war are the terrorist organizations who are recruiting at record numbers. Thank you to the authors for such a cogent study of a terrifying and troubling situation.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Bush Administration's Push for War
Comment: Politicians have always used propaganda during times of war to help build support for military action. From Lincoln, to Hitler, to Roosevelt, there has always been an element of propaganda built into the complex war machine. With the war against Iraq, propaganda has been especially critical to the Bush administration. The use of propaganda in the war against Iraq is the primary focus of this book, "Weapons of Mass Deception", written by authors Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber.
This book centers on several of the basic elements of propaganda: selling the idea to the people, using deceptive statistics, relying on fear to encourage support for war, etc. In each of these areas, the two authors explain how these methods are used, in general, and then how the Bush administration used them to build support for the war against Iraq.
One of the primary tasks of the propaganda effort in this war was the act of convincing the people that Iraq had "weapons of mass destruction" and could attack the U.S. at any time (hence, the title of the book). Now, experts have come forward to claim that the weapons charges were false, adding more validity to the author's claim that this was the main deception of the war. Many critics of the war had doubts about the weapons claim and now this book presents its ideas on how and why the false charges were made. No direct finger pointing takes place, but the authors feel that several military and/or political leaders in the present administration are responsible.
It's interesting how politicans use the various deceptions described in this book. Some of the methods are more subtle, like the use of public relations firms to present the most patriotic take possible on everyday issues and events. Others are more direct, like the weapons claim itself. The authors present many of these war deceptions in the book, showing how the Bush administration misled the people into backing the war. The "weapons of mass destruction" claim was, of course, the biggest deception of all. Many nations have stockpiles of dangerous weapons but the U.S government has never suggested attacking them. But in this case, Bush officials had to convince the people that Iraq was a "dangerous enemy" that "had to be stopped immediately" if security would ever have a chance to become reality. The truth is, Iraq had no chance at all against the U.S. military and senior Bush officials knew this well. But the element of fear was useful to convince the public to support the war, so the claim was made nonetheless.
This book doesn't provide extensive coverage on the war and the blantant use of propaganda. It's only about 250 pages in length, and once you account for the notes and index, there are only about 210 pages to read. The authors meant for the book to be a reference tool for discovering the various acts of deception without going too deep in its analysis.
As a whole, this book makes for a pretty good read. Pro- war individuals will probably not like it, and many will stick by the president's "weapons" claim no matter what happens. But whether you are pro- war or anti- war, "Weapons of Mass Deception" is still a book worth reading. It uncovers some of the different uses of deception that the Bush administration used and it helps to educate the reader on how governments use propaganda to sway the masses of people during wartime.
 |
Title: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken ISBN: 0525947647 Publisher: E P Dutton Pub. Date: 29 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth by Joe Conason ISBN: 0312315600 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Pub. Date: 25 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda by Noam Chomsky ISBN: 1583225366 Publisher: Seven Stories Press Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
 |
Title: Thieves in High Places: They've Stolen Our Country--And Its Time to Take It Back by Jim Hightower ISBN: 0670031410 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 14 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization and High-Finance Fraudsters by Greg Palast ISBN: 0452283914 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: 25 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
