Desert Mirage: The True Story of the Gulf War [Hardcover]

Martin Yant (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1991

Shortly after Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, author Martin Yant argued in a newspaper column that Saddam Hussein's 'military machine' wasn't nearly the menace President Bush said it was. Rather than being a well-equipped and 'battle-hardened' million-man Wehrmacht at the command of another Adolf Hitler, Yant suggested that the Iraqi army appeared to be a 'war weary', smaller, supply-short force at the command of another Manuel Noriega. When the Persian Gulf War ended in February of 1991 in the U.S. led coalition's rout of the Iraqi army, Yant set out to write "Desert Mirage" to show how the Bush administration had deliberately deceived Americans into supporting the pursuit of power disguised as the pursuit of principle - at the cost of an estimated 375,000 lives. In the process, Yant shows how the 'liberation' of Kuwait, whose occupation the Bush administration helped cause - either by ineptness or design - was merely a pretense for assertion of American power in the Middle East. Yant pieces together his convincing case from thousands of reports from dozens of sources that sporadically seeped through the administration's veil of deceit to reveal that the thunderously triumphant 'Desert Storm' was actually a deviously devised 'Desert Mirage' with far more foreboding causes and consequences than what the public could ever imagine.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This sprawling, unfocused look at the Persian Gulf conflict generally tells us what we already suspect--that Pentagon censorship limited the impact of the war on the American public, sanitizing the slaughter by means of carefully orchestrated briefings while President Bush painted the affair as a noble battle for freedom against aggression. According to Yant ( Presumed Guilty ) the administration deliberately obscured significant events and issues through its strict control of the news media. Among the deceptions: the likelihood that the U.S., by accident or design, helped create the crisis (Washington, charges the author, "practically encouraged Saddam Hussein to take over Kuwait") and may have sabotaged an Arab summit aimed at resolving the dispute between Iraq and Kuwait. Other points weakly made: that the international embargo against Iraq was more effective than our government led its citizens to believe, and that the tactical performance of the so-called smart bombs as well as the Patriot missiles were disappointing, despite publicity to the contrary. Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-- In straightforward terms, Yant details the carefully orchestrated public-relations efforts that went into the war and ends with a strong hint that Pentagon censorship withheld information about the impact of the war on the American public and that the administration deliberately obscured significant events and issues through its strict control of the news media. The author charges that Washington ``practically encouraged Saddam Hussein to take over Kuwait'' and undermined plans for an Arab summit aimed at resolving the dispute between Iraq and Kuwait. He also points out that the embargo against Iraq was more effective than our government led us to believe. --Mike Printz, Topeka West High School, KS
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 222 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books; 1st ptg. edition (September 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879756780
• ISBN-13: 978-0879756789
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,543,988 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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