Bush's War for Reelection: Iraq, the White House, and the People

This is a riveting account of Bush's war against Iraq, its causes and consequences. Veteran journalist James Moore vividly shows the courage and patriotism of American soldiers in battle and the heartache of the casualties' families. He contrasts this with the cold-hearted lying of those who abuse their trust. In particular, he examines the doctored military records of a certain congressman's son, who managed to evade serving in the war against Vietnam.In 2000, outgoing President Clinton told George W. Bush that the terrorist threat from bin Laden was `the top priority', followed by Israel-Palestine, North Korea, India-Pakistan and Saddam Hussein. Bush replied, "I think you've got your priorities wrong. I'm putting Saddam at the top of the list." From the first, Bush targeted Iraq, which has oil, not Al Qa'ida, which doesn't.So Bush had to lie that Iraq, not Al Qa'ida, was the main threat to the American people. Fortunately for him, the US state has decades of experience of deceiving people into aggressive wars. Moore examines several of these tested techniques. For example, Bush alleged that Iraq had bought aluminum tubes to help develop nuclear weapons. Here's how it works. Ignore the facts - the experts at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory unanimously found that the tubes were not for nuclear weapons. Plant the story with a pliant journalist - in this case, Pulitzer Prize-winning Judith Miller of the New York Times. Order the intelligence and scientific communities not to dispute the administration's claims, implying that any dissent would be treated as treachery. Do a media blitz, and use the silence from the spooks and scientists as proof of the claims. Get an administration stooge - Colin Powell - to tell the lie to the UN. Get another stooge - Blair - to repeat the lie around the world. Moore also shows how the US Army censored reports from Iraq - that's what `embedded journalism' means - so Judith Miller reported what the Army told her. She got most of her WMD stories from Ahmad Chalabi, who told the same tales to the Army and the White House, which then confirmed their truth to Miller.Moore recounts how, eight days after Joseph Wilson wrote that the White House `twisted intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat', `senior administration officials' released his wife's identity as a CIA agent. Divulging such information is a criminal offence.Using known forgeries is another technique. Although even Berlusconi's tabloid paper Panorama turned down an article based on forged documents alleging that Iraq bought uranium from Niger, Blair published the story as fact in his September 2002 dossier, and Bush used it in his State of the Union address.Bush also has techniques for stealing elections: his new one, electronic touch screen voting, beats `hanging chads' and postal voting any day. Georgia was the first state to conduct an election using only electronic voting: as a result, the Republican candidate's votes rose by 1

This is one book that should be read by every American, whether you are pro-Bush or anti-Bush, liberal or conservative. Moore sheds light on the nature of true patriotism by interweaving the very personal and moving stories of soldiers who fought and died in Vietnam along with the heart-rending stories of some of the heroes who died in Iraq. These poignant stories form the backdrop against which Moore details of how George W. Bush avoided serving in Vietnam by receiving preferential treatment in get a spot in the Texas National Guard -- and then went AWOL to work on a GOP campaign in another state.There are other important themes that author Moore elucidates, such as the recurring accusation that Bush was dead set on deposed Saddam Hussein even before he took the oath of office. By now, we all know that Iraq was not an imminent threat to the US, that there were no weapons of mass destruction, and that Saddam was little more that a "mayor of Baghdad." We also know that Iraqis did not welcome American troops with open arms, as we had been told. One of the most troubling themes Moore describes is the lack of preparedness American soldiers received in terms of arms and equipment. The lack of appropriate body armor for soldiers has already received wide coverage in the press. But Moore follows the same mechanized unit that Jessica Lynch was attached to in the ambush at Al Nasiriyah which occurred after the 507th took a wrong turn in the desert. There's a lot more to the incident than has come out in the press, especially with the sensationalism of the rescue of Private Lynch. Perhaps more lives would have been saved if the military had provided these troops with weapons that not get jammed, and a commication system that actually worked. Battery operated walkie-talkies and communication devices were useless when the batteries went dead. And many of the young soldiers had been put into a position of having to purchase extra batteries because none had been supplied by the military. Conservative and pro-Bush citizens may close their ears and hearts to the preceding information written passionately and lucidly by Mr. Moore. They may poo-poo incident in which right-wing journalist Robert Novak revealed the identity of a CIA operative based on comments revealed by a "high ranking administration official". But the one chapter in the book that MUST be read by every American is "Soldier Down." In "Soldier Down," chapter 15, James Moore delves into the dirty details or electronic voting, the companies that build the software and hardware for the electronic voting machines, the startling ties of those companies to the Bush adminnistration. With no paper trail and no method for holding a recount, these machines may be the downfall of our democracy. The machines have an unacceptable error rate, can be hacked into, and offer the possibility of "fixing" elections. Radical Republicans may welcome this underhanded way of usurping power. But they shou

This book should be on the reading list of anyone who wants to make an informed voting decision in November. The author reveals startling information about the mishandling of the Iraqi situation, and provides telling insight into the decision making processes of the Bush administration. Please read before you vote in November. Disregard those close-minded reviewers who *condemn* the book simply because it dosen't conform to what they believe to be the *truth*. Read the book first and then judge for yourself the veracity of Moore's revelations.

No wonder the Bush Administration is so touchy about Mr Kerry's comments, "they are the biggest bunch of crooks and liars". In this election year, I have been doing a lot of serious reading, both online, in the library, and when a really good book comes along -- buying it. This book is in that last category.After hearing about this book on MSNBC, I had to get it. I was not disappointed. The format, style and detail is superb.It confirms my original fears regarding Iraq, and gave me some new ones. The problem is, it makes me feel violated, taken advantage of by these people who arrogantly abuse their absolute power. And to think that I actually wrote Pres. Bush, and offered my "patriotic support, even though I didn't vote for you, as we go to war -- I have to trust that you know what you are doing and you will do the right thing". Trust? Do the right thing? Boy, was I a schmuck! Kerry was right -- "they are the biggest bunch of crooks and liars" that ANY of us have EVER seen. Worse than Nixon! And I used to be a Republican! Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. This book should be REQUIRED READING before you are ALLOWED to vote! I'm sending my copy to a brother-in-law, an uninformed Bush supporter. Hopefully he, and others like him, will make a more informed voting decision once they've read this book! My thanks to Mr Moore. I highly recommend this book. For a more comic, light, and entertaining approach to some of this subject matter, I also recommend Al Franken's, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them".

James Moore, author of "Bush's Brain" (that would be Karl Rove) is back with more hard-hitting reporting. The theme of the book is that Bush, who had strings pulled to get him into the National Guard to avoid Vietnam and then went AWOL to work on a GOP political campaign, is no war hero. Moore's book is filled with the stories of the real war heroes, the young men and women who were sent to fight in two wars that should not have been fought -- Vietnam, and Iraq 2003. The format moves back and forth between chapters exposing the lies, vendettas and trickery of Bush and his team, and chapters profiling the stories of combat veterans. The opening chapter documents the fact that the Bush administration was committed to a war on Iraq upon entering office. 9/11 was merely the pretext. They knew full well that they were manufacturing and twisting intel -- what nerve to deny it! (See the excellent story "The Lie Factory" on the Office of Special Plans in Mother Jones on the web.) Hundreds of U.S. troops have died for Bush's lies, Bush who used his family connections to avoid combat himself. A major contribution of the book is to document Bush being AWOL and the cover-up, including photocopies of many documents and a list of those that are missing. LTC Bill Burkett of the Texas Army National Guard is one who knows and has paid the price -- he has suffered death threats, shots fired into his house, and the denial of medical treatment that nearly killed him, all because he refused to join the coverup of Bush's AWOL episode in 1972-3. Another chapter covers the shameful outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame by the Bush administration. Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife was exposed by right-wing journalist Bob Novak in retaliation for Wilson's exposing the lie that Iraq had purchased uranium from Niger, the infamous "16 words" inserted into Bush's speech long after it was known to be unfounded. One of the most shocking stories included here is the scandal of electronic voting. The use of electronic touch screen systems allows the manipulation of results -- this is documented by Moore, using the research of Bev Harris (see her book "Black Box Voting") among others. Diebold Election Systems, one of the leading manufacturers, is associated with the GOP -- CEO Wally O'Dell was a "Ranger" for Bush in 2000. Diebold is alleged to have stolen 16,022 votes from Gore in Volusia County, Florida in 2000 with vote tabulation equipment, and also to have stolen the election from Vietnam vet Senator Max Cleland of Georgia in 2002. It is explained how patches are used to fix malfunctioning machines, and that these patches can easily be used to insert codes that change the results. In the 2002 election in GA, which used Diebold machines, there was a 25-30% failure rate, which resulted in the application of patches to 1,387 terminals. This is not a science fiction dystopia, this is the GOP using computers to steal elections today in America. Bush has manipulated t