Customer Reviews

Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush

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Robert Parry's book accurately and, for those who count themselves as
lovers of liberty, excruciatingly delineates the deceitful, arrogant, and ironic rise of George W. Bush from military coward and failed businessman to President of the United States, via manipulation and coercion of the
highest court in the land. Parry's book goes on to reveal that Bush and his political cronies may well have been able to thwart the horrific events of 9/11 had they not been more concerned with personal power and blinded by their hatred of their political opposition. Once again, irony comes to the forefront, in that Bush is looked upon by the American people as a strong and forceful leader in the wake of 9/11, when Parry
shows that his bravado was nothing more than a flimsy facade created by a nervous and fearful media. And then, of course, comes the Iraq war, a war actually being fought for oil, but asking for the sacrifice of thousands of brave American soldiers being told they are fighting terrorism. But perhaps the most unforgivable and egregious act committed by George W. Bush during his reign, and revealed by Parry at great length and in minute detail, is Bush's flagrant and criminal disregard for the Constitution of the United States--in essence, making up his own rules as he sees fit, and interpreting the Constitution to suit his own purposes. Reading this book, I found myself asking the question time and time again, "why are we standing still for this, and not demanding reform?" I've since come to the conclusion that we, the American people, no longer deserve our country, and that we must accept whatever fate our lackadaisical attitude and behavior brings us. I commend and admire Robert Parry for having the courage to bring these sad and disastrous facts to light. At least there's still one real American among us.

If you are also tired of the DC spin then this is the book for you. Written by a team, family team, of honest to goodness investigative reporters who have documented the unbelievably long list of failed decisions, policies, executive orders, etc of this administration. The failures have come so fast, so sudden, so numerous we can hardly keep abreast. I plan to read this book at least once every year to never forget the many issues that the American public has been failed on. From even before 9/11 the problems were being planned. Today the mistakes are still coming at us, now the disaster in Iraq is being pushed aside to make room for the coming disaster in Iran. I recommend this book to all who question why we are where we are. The Parrys,father and sons team, have produced an excellent work in this book. Tired of the mind numbing politics and DC spin, then you'll want this book. Also if you really want to know the reason for Iranian distrust of US check out 'All the Shah's Men'. We have some bloody history!

The Parrys do their usual fine investigative reporting in this book Neck Deep. They connect the dots from early in GWB's career to the current fiasco we find ourselves in. This book should be bought even if reading time is precious. Save it for history if you have to, for that is what it is - history without the mainline media spin. The authors use some of their previously written articles to point out the previously mis-leading big media accounts of "facts" and their timely accounts of history. I plan to read it ever so often to remember how we really got into this mess. Buy it - then compare it to the spin of other "historians" and to what you see as truly happening.

As with everything Robert Parry attaches his name to, this is a Top Notch and thoroughly researched piece of investigative journalism. Since I agree with the other reviews posted before mine, I'll keep it short and advise you to read all of his other books, as well as direct you to visit his website at http://www.consortiumnews.com.

The America that existed before 2000 is now basically in shambles. Just about every fundamental American principle, even biggies like the constitutional rule of law and the separation of powers, is under attack. Want more? Torture, secret prisons, warrantless spying - I could go on. Our reputation around the world, even in the eyes of our allies, has been ruined, and we are stuck in a bloody occupation of a foreign land that was no threat to us.

So what happened? (911 and/or GWB? Not so simple, as you'll see.) This is the question the book sets out to answer. If the United States is to recover, then it's important to examine exactly how and why we got into this mess in the first place. Veteran independent journalist Robert Parry of consortium news (.com) has written a book that does the best job by far I've ever seen (and I read a lot) of explaining how it happened.
Blame, most of all, a complicit mainstream media, and a right-wing media propaganda apparatus that together can basically trick many average citizens into believing things that simply aren't true - ie "Iraq has a massive weapons of mass destruction program," and "Saddam is in league with Al Qaeda" etc.

The thoroughness of the research presented here is easily worth five stars. It should come as no surprise that Mr. Parry could write such a book. He is the same man that first helped to expose the corruption in the Reagan administration re: Iran-contra. Not only is his book enlightening, it is quite an interesting read for anyone concerned with the course our government has taken since the 2000 selection.

For anyone who wants to know what has really been happening politically in the US for the past 50 years or more, this book will add considerably to your knowledge. If you want to know how and why the House of Bush seized power and subverted the American electoral process - read this book. Robert Parry and team at [...] are bright stars in the list of American journalists and investigative reporters who can still wear those names with pride. All their books and articles are well worth your time.

The book hardly touches on the "Shock and Awe" that Con-thinking machines have perpetrated on the economy. The Final Result of Runaway, No Restraint Capitalism; yet more contributions to the nation and history by "Compassionate Conservatism"! So the miserble disaster of BushGroup which is detailed in this book so well, mainly the fraudulent run-up to "Daddy's Iraq War", has not finished with Con economic theory and practice. We can hope this father-sons team will only come up with a new edition soon with a final tally on the Wreck the USA policies of Bush and his fellow cons!

NECK DEEP A Review
Nat, Robert, and Sam Parry
The Media Consortium, Arlington, VA
2007
418 pp.
Reviewed by Mildred Perry Miller, Chattanooga, TN

I have been "neck deep" in the book Neck Deep by Nat, Robert, and Sam Parry since I received the tome in my Christmas stocking. The subtitle is The Disastrous
Presidency of George W. Bush. For those who have been observing the adminis-
tration of George Bush since its inception on a chilling rainy day in Washington, DC, January 20, 2001, it has been an ominous time and 7 years of appre-
hension and dismay. In fact, the way the election was handed to George W. Bush
by five Republican members of the Supreme Court, since Bush had lost the pop-
ular vote and all of the votes in Florida had not been counted, still elicits many
questions. In this book, the Parrys are determined to answer the question of "Who
Killed the American Republic?" for it is dead according to what it was before the intrusion of George W. Bush onto the American scene.

The Parrys theorize, and rightly so, that it is not just Bush who has brought our
beloved America to its impending demise; other perpetrators have been the
so-called media pundits, both political parties, all forms of the media, and the public in general. The most prolific and worst offenders in distorting America's
history and proscribing the Constitution and having the most influence on foreign
policy and the thinking of Bush have been those people calling themselves the
neo-cons, namely Wolfowitz, William Kristol, Abrams, Kagan,Krauthammer, John Bolton, David Wurmser, Richard Perle, James Woolsey, I. Lewis Libby, Max Boot, Norman Podhoretz, Dick Cheney, and many others. These men fostered the phil-
osophy that the Middle East needed to be democratized and that it could only be
done by force. They had, in fact, according to Neck Deep ,tried to get President
Clinton to declare war on Iraq and are now eager to have Bush bomb or declare
war on Iran. Many think the immediate goals are oil and power and military bases.

Major newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post, plus many
talk show hosts and reporters,supported Bush throughout the time when war was
being discussed and even later. Some of the most vociferous and supportive of
Bush's war were Joe Scarborough, Brit Hume, Chris Matthews, Charles Kraut-
hammer, Mort Kondracke, Fred Barnes. Chris Matthews even went so far as to say
"We are all neo-cons now." Cal Thomas thought that those who disagreed with
the war should have their words recorded and filed away so they could be used
against them later. The neo-cons had been for war in the Middle East for years.

The Parrys, authors of Neck Deep, feel that a deep decay was taking place in Amer-
ica at the time Bush seized the presidency and that he took advantage of that,
himself having very little knowledge of history or the rule of law or the role of the
President in our society. He, with advice from his Attorney Generals and others,
felt he could supersede any law and proceeded to act accordingly, and if anyone
disagreed, they were probably terrorists. His motto was, "You are either with us
or you are against us."

If anyone is interested in the factual truth about what has happened to America, and wants to know who has killed the American Republic, they should read this
book and take it to heart. Those who have driven the war and planned it do not,
in most instances,havesons and daughters among the dead and wounded. Most
of them have not gone to war when they were of war age. The Parrys feel that much of the damage of this administration could have been avoided. All of the
evidence was there before us, but out of fear and intimidation, too many people
went along and made no effort to learn the truth. This book will explain how the
9/11 tragedy was used to disregard and ignore the safeguards built into our sys-
tem, and "how the Washington political /media elite failed the country." In fact,
the 9/11 tragedy and other concepts completely pulled the wool over the eyes of
millions of Americans, including the 77 Democrats in the Senate who voted to
authorize Bush to invade Iraq, even though no WMDs had been discovered after
months of searching. The world is much less safe now than it was in 2001,thanks
to Bush and the neo-cons.

Finally, many public figures are exposed for what they are and the myths that have
been built up around them have been stripped away. One can see and understand
them as real people with flaws and also better natures, with explanations as tohow
they have made our country into what it is today. I highly recommend this book
and believe it lends itself to truth and American patriotism. This book is readable,
written with great clarity, interesting, and rewarding in that one can finally learn all
of the truth of just what has happened here and in Iraq that is dragging America
down. While the truths in this book show the demonic behavior of some of the
officials in government, the authors end on a note of hope, saying "by Spring 2007
a change could be detected in public awareness of the national crisis. Perhaps
the most hopeful sign was that many Americans had come to understand how little the Washington insiders...deserved to be trusted. That skepticism, if it were ever
combined with serious demands for reform, could be the start of a rebirth for the
American Republic." In his second inaugural Lincoln called for a rebirth of freedom and that is what is needed now.

Robert Parry shows that although Bush has the most responsibility for the Iraq War and other crimes of his administration he shares responsibility with the mainstream media which was unwilling to put Bush's claims about links between Al-Qaeda and Iraq and Iraq possessing WMD the proper scrutiny. The media's culpability is aggravated by the fact that they put much more scrutiny on the comparatively smaller scandals of the Clinton Administration. The alternative media such as the authors website Consortium.com and Air America Radio. The author also does a good job of exposing the myths behind Colin Powells reputation for integrity showing that he helped to cover up the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and that he was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal.

I can only review the quality of service for this delivery of this book because I gave it as a gift and have not read it myself. The price and shipping were extremely outstanding...but what was the even better was that Amazon actually had the book in stock. I went to several book stores locally and even had Borders do a company search all to no avail. Then I checked here and it was available and in stock for much (do stress much) cheaper than all the others. And I had the book at my doorstep within 3 days...what more can be said...