Customer Reviews

A War Against Truth: An Intimate Account of the Invasion of Iraq

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I have just posted a list of books relevant to citizen evaluation of whether Dick Cheney should be impeached for dereliction of duty and high crimes and misdemeanors (lying to everyone including his ward, the President), and this book is on that list.

I agree with those reviewers that are put off by the seething anger, but I would also hasten to add that seething anger is exactly the right emotion with which to view the thousands of US dead, the tens of thousands of US woundeded including more amputees than ever before in history, and the billions of angry Muslims who see America as a rogue nation.

I am, with all humility and perhaps the good fortune of timing, the #1 Amazon reviewer for non-fiction about global issues and national security. I take this book very seriously, and believe that everyone else should as well. Viewing my list "Books Relevant to Evaluating Cheney" will provide some helpful perspective. Two US Senators, and three major league Republicans have written books against Cheney, and this should carry some weight with the public.

This is a good book, worthy of everyone's consideration.

Modern neuroscience teaches that anger has a short decay time and that it requires frequent inputs to sustain itself. In reading this book, when thinking about the events in Iraq for the past fifteen years, and when listening to the dull platitudes of the yellow regime in Washington, it is very difficult not to be angry. The savagery unleashed upon Iraq, along with the jingoistic echolalia of the Western press, all contribute to a seemingly sustainable level of anger and frustration.

But anger, although motivating perhaps to a degree, by itself does not offer any constructive solutions. This book, written by a person who was "on the ground" during the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq, is riddled with anger, even polluted with it. But if anger can have a moral justification, one will find such a justification in this book. When your neighborhood is invaded, when your neighbors and friends are killed, one does not usually cogitate over the reasons for these killings.

The author holds the reader's interest because of the rarity of finding first hand accounts of what was going on in Iraq before and after the invasion. It would be difficult to verify the author's account though because of the paucity of reliable information coming from Iraq. Cameras and embedded reporters are of no help in this regard, since they are forced to observe from the supervised eye of the military.

The horror of the invasion is brought out with great clarity in the book. It will probably not convince the fist-raising soldiers of the sofa to refrain from their rhetorical support of the war, but it does offer the reader a viewpoint from someone who is embedded in its carnage. It also offers some facts or claims that need further investigation but that are perhaps surprising to those readers, such as this reviewer, who have not lived in that part of the world. It is a book that will certainly reinforce the opinions of those opposed to the war, and is a refreshing alternative to the non-critical flag-waving of the ideologically entrenched news agencies.

This book captured my attention like no other. PWR perfectly recreates the emotion of witnessing the American Empire rape and pillage Iraq. Hopefully it won't take too many more innocent lives before the American people learn from their mistakes.

What was supposed to be a quick visit to the bookstore turned into an hour of page turning and the purchase of a Masterpiece thanks to the blatant honesty and cunning wit of Mr. Paul William Roberts. One often asks what makes a good author and what makes a good book. Pick up A War Against Truth and you will be enlightened by a great book from the pen of a great author. Honest, poignant, hardhitting truth seem to flow quite nicely from the pen to the page, from the page to the heart.

Be prepared to laugh, to cry and to be terrifically angry, then sit down with a copy of this book today. You will not be disappointed.

This book moved me deeply. It honoured the Iraqi people. Written by an author who is obviously very intelligent and humane, he writes sometimes in anger (understandably - his Iraqi friend and family were most probably "lit up" in their car near Fallujah), but mostly with a humanity and depth of understanding that left me awed.

Paul Roberts takes you into the amazing history of these wonderful, intelligent people, who have not yet lost the ability to feel another's pain, and to cry unashamedly when the pain is too great.

I have read a great deal on Iraq and its history. This is, to date, the most powerful and the most humane. Plus some very interesting little tidbits, like his discussion with Prince Faisa of Jordan. What DID happen to the Hussein brothers?

If you read no other book on Iraq, I would definitely recommend this one.

Canadian report Paul William Roberts spent three decades covering the Middle East and was one of the few journalist6 to have interviewed Saddam Husseun, so he knows Iraq better than those newly there - and he was in Baghdad when the bombs fell. A WAR AGAINST TRUTH: AN INTIMATE ACCOUNT OF THE INVASION OF IRAQ is thus much more than an outsider's report: it's a detailed first-person moment-by- moment account of politics, personalities and history by one who has spent most of his adult life learning and absorbing. An excellent non-American, non-Middle-East perspective is developed.

Paul William Roberts captures the suffering and frustrations of the Iraqi people like no other. This is the most painful and eye opening account of the Iraq war I've read to date. Roberts elucidates Iraq from the perspectives of its people and paints a brutally honest picture of their woes. If you are to read one book on the American invasion of Iraq, let this be the one you choose. Absolutely outstanding work!!!

In spite of the rather grim opening chapter, describing the fate of a friend of the author , I found I couldn't put it down. The author skillfully leads one through the history of Iraq (7000years worth) and manages to instil humour (usually about some of the wonderfully gutsy Iraqis he has run into)into his beautifully written book. The "Truth" of the book's title is not too obscure - what the author has perceived to be happening during the two recent wars against Iraq. Paul William Roberts clearly knows the country like the back of his hand. The truth about "cluster bombs" I found very hard to take.
I recommend this to anyone who would like to improve his or her knowledge about the Middle East

This moving book is about the invasion of Iraq. It is similar to Chris Hedges' WAR IS A FORCE THAT GIVES US MEANING. Both recount the authors' first-hand stories of war, and use brief quotations from classical and contemporary literature interspersed in the text. The quotations create understanding and perspective beyond the immediate writing to show the age-old wisdom of the folly of war, deathly horror now intensified by industrial technology.

Two other recent works come to mind: OIL, POWER AND EMPIRE, by Larry Everest, and BEHIND THE WAR ON TERROR, by Nafeez Ahmed, in their provision of historical context of the Iraq invasion. Thompson's book furthers these accounts and adds a narrative of his experiences in the Iraq invasion and the political analysis of a Canadian who, as he says, in describing "speaking truth to power," is doing a difficult job, one that someone who speaks English has got to do.

A WAR AGAINST TRUTH has a very engaging pace and flow, conveying academic knowledge within the context of "on-the-ground street smarts." His stories are expressed with sardonic, continually irascible wit, and a compassionate, hip, almost beat attitude. Over and over prose passages sear with inevitability.

Passages on the physical and psychological effects of shock and awe bombardment, on the use of collective punishment, on the incomprehensible foolishness of intentional slaughter of children with cluster bombs, the relentless stupidity of house break-ins and general social rudeness, the brutal injuries and deaths of civilians, and the inability to foster positive aspects of Iraqi life show "liberation," "democracy," and `freedom" proffered-imposed-by America to be hollow promises, belied by common Iraqi perception of the truths of the war's invasion.

It could be that the black humour seen by the various reviewers quoted at the paperback's cover and front matter is really only the result of profound morality offended by inhumane acts, and conveyed in an unusual manner.

At the end one feels the weight of the author's grief and indignation at wrongs done to a beloved place and people, and empathizes with his repeated but noninsistent calls for justice for war criminals.

This book is a must read for anyone who wants to gain a better appreciation of the relevant history of the Middle East and the effect of the Gulf War upon its peoples. The book further identifies the urgent need for the average American to gain a better understanding of the effects of the current US administration's foreign policy choices. This book is well written and conveys a humanity which is sorely missing in the sensationalist, ratings driven media of today.