Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush

This is one of two books that I have read together, both documenting the decades of deceit by both the US and UK governments, and to a much lesser degree, by France, Germany, and Russia, among others. The two compelling facts that stay with me as I put the book down, are two: 1) From Churchill to Kennedy to Bush (Cheney), all of our Presidents in the US, but most especially Reagan, Bush, Clinton (Brzezinski), and the current and failed crew of neo conservatives that use Bush Junior as a talking doll, have been complicit--let me spell that again--complicit in the mass murders, the massacres, the torture that we first condoned and now practice ourselves. The US White House denizens are all long overdue for formal indictment, at least by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The author documents, very ably, a long string of broken promises (e.g. to the Bedouin leader for a free Arab state in return for help in WWI, to the Kurds, etc.) and complicity in mass murder. In the author's views, the sanctions are a war crime against the children, women, and elderly of Iraq, a war crime that lasted thirteen years. 2) Salaam Hussein was a creature spawned in large part by the CIA. Although I have spent 30 years in the intelligence business, it was not until I embarked on my broad non-fiction reading program that I have been able to understand that the CIA specifically, but all the rest of the classified intelligence community, is complicit in mass murders, genocides, running cocaine into the US to wipe out poor communities now addicted to crack, made affordable by the CIA's drug runners, and made politically kosher because Wall Street demands drug money--laundered drug money--for its liquidity. I join Lee Iacocca in asking, "Where is the outrage?" There is not a candidate for President today, not even Ron Paul, who can outline in chapter and verse, as I now can on the shoulders of the 900+ authors whose hard-earned insights I have absorbed these past six years, the evil that Lionel Tiger and others show is inherent in industrialization and the centralization of power. We need to destroy the current corrupt elections process, implement electoral reform across the board, and start putting bright honorable people in office, instead of these nakedly immoral and profoundly evil creatures who will inflict any sacrifice, impose any burden, on We the People so that they may profit. A few of the many gems from this superb work: 1) All our Presidents in recent time have lied to us, and the most humiliating of all of these lies was not the weapons of mass destruction, but the abandonment of the Kurds and the refusal to listen when Iraqi generals approached Iraqi dissidents who in turn came to the Department of State only to be shunned away. Salaam Hussein promised to leave Kuwait, but US wanted to destroy his army, and refused to hold off on what proved to be 40 hours of pure slaughter. Gulf II was not only more lies, but the active suppression of fa

Pulling no punches, Barry effectively reconstructs the history of Iraq from the end of the Ottoman Empire, through the current shrub administration. Like Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein was a monster we help create in a very big way. When he was coerced into attacking Iran, he was useful. When he gassed the Kurds and the town of Halabja, he was inconvenient, but still an ally, and was removed from the list of terrorist states. When our government (in concert with the Iranians) removed military support for the Kurdish rebellion, our government watched as he brutally massacred and gassed them with weapons he procured from us and the Germans. When he became no longer useful, we did him in. We did not allow the court to name foreigners as co-defendants, which was lucky for many in our current administration. But what is more extraordinary, is the history of the Soviets, Israeli's and the U.S selling weapons to both Iraq and Iran during their war through the 1980's. We sold weapons to both sides (Iran - Contra Scandal), gave Saddam satellite and other intelligence, just enough to keep them both going so that, in the words of Henry Kissinger: "I hope they kill each other...". This book provides a wealth of information for those interested in understanding some of the history of U.S interference in Iraq, and a little of the same in Iran.

This is one of the best books on Anglo-American policy towards Iraq. Its key virtue is placing the current disaster in the context of a long pattern of war crimes and lies, going back to Winston Churchill and World War I. It was Churchill, not Saddam, who initiated the use of poison gas against civilians as a means of control. In the 1980's American satellites helped direct Saddam in the use of massive amounts of poison gas, including nerve gas, against Iranian troops. In 1991 America called on the Shiites to rise up and then did nothing while Saddam slaughtered them. I could go to list even more dishonest and criminal acts by England and America but I suggest you just read the book. If you are skeptical about any assertions in this review, just go read the book. It speaks for itself and is very well-documented.

This book is masterful. Big-time Bush cheerleaders like Andrew Sullivan who championed us into this tragic war, will have to reconcile their own consciences with the books revelations. The hypocrisy of the neocons and Bush worshipers is astonishing.