Going to War: How Misinformation, Disinformation, and Arrogance Led America into Iraq (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Best info fast..." (more)
Key Phrases: yellowcake deal, mobile bioweapons labs, uranium deal, White House, United States, President Bush (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A thoroughgoing study of the war that, suggests former New York Daily News editor Hoyle, may one day be known as ‘Bush's Folly.’ Blending journalism and history, Hoyle's narrative enfolds ‘a war that has morphed from a strongly supported U.S.-led retaliatory attack on al Qaeda terrorists into a bloody and brutal Iraqi civil war that has killed tens of thousands, perhaps more.’ The origins of that morass remain murky, even with Hoyle's expert storytelling, but it is clear that the war began in Dick Cheney's office, the vice president having carved out an ample role as the ‘White House's point man on intelligence’ and serving more as prime minister than lieutenant. Cheney's secretive circle of neoconservative ideologues seemed to live for 9/11, which provided an outlet for his habit of thinking of worst-case scenarios as the norm . . . . [Going to War is] an essential history of a poor idea badly executed.”
--Kirkus Reviews

“Going to War tells one of the great cautionary tales of American history -- how the president, arousing fears and exploiting the trust of the people, persuaded Congress to support the invasion of a faraway country that posed no threat to the United States. The truth behind the deception has been spilling out for five years, and Russ Hoyle tells the story with drama and detail. It’s all here -- the phony intelligence, the manipulation of the press, the banging of the drum for war. How we got in is no longer a mystery, but how to get out remains.”
--Thomas Powers, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize and author of Intelligence Wars

“Until George W. Bush’s Executive Order 13233, which makes presidential records secret in perpetuity, is rescinded, we are extraordinarily fortunate to have Russ Hoyle’s invaluable, meticulous, and illuminating account of how the administration contrived to manipulate the nation into war. Going to War is the Iliad of Bush’s march of folly to Iraq.”
--Sidney Blumenthal, former political columnist for Salon and author of The Clinton Wars

“Russ Hoyle, a veteran editor and reporter, looks at the evidence and the tactics used by the Bush administration to justify the invasion of Iraq. Even those who do not agree with all of his conclusions will find the detailed reporting and arguments in this fast-paced and well-written narrative a provocative addition to an important debate.”
--Walter Isaacson, former chairman and CEO of CNN and bestselling author of Einstein: His Life and Universe

“Russ Hoyle has written a detailed account of how the Bush administration misused prewar intelligence on Iraq’s WMD, a subject that Congress has long promised to look into but never delivered. Mr. Hoyle also vividly describes how White House aides manipulated the media in the Valerie Wilson outing to cover up their efforts to sell Saddam’s alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons. He has masterfully performed an important historical function and written a readable and thorough account into the bargain.”
--Frederick P. Hitz, former inspector general of the CIA and author of Why Spy?

Product Description

With the pacing and intrigue of a thriller, Going to War is the fullest, most detailed account yet of the U.S.-led march to war in Iraq. Veteran editor and reporter Russ Hoyle has pieced together the whole complicated story, from the Bush administration’s aggressive twisting of intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to its manipulation of Congress and a compliant media in order to “sell” the war to a frightened nation.

Hoyle takes us inside the White House and intelligence agencies, where we witness internal debates that took place within the Oval Office, the Office of the Vice President, the Pentagon, and the CIA after 9/11 and in the months leading up to the war. He describes the furtive steps of the White House Iraq Group--including Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Karen Hughes, and their militant neoconservative enablers--who maneuvered with Vice President Cheney to promote unfounded intelligence about Iraqi WMD and pressure the CIA to tailor its analysis to fit President Bush’s war policy.

We also learn about the propaganda campaign waged by Iraqi exile leader Ahmed Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress; Tony Blair’s role in pushing the White House to use Saddam’s WMD as a rationale for war, as revealed in classified British government documents; the behind-the-scenes story of Colin Powell’s televised presentation to the United Nations in the months before the U.S.-led attack; the truth behind the Niger yellowcake affair and the administration’s vendetta against Ambassador Joseph Wilson in leaking the identity of his wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, as a covert CIA agent; and the grand jury investigation that led to the dramatic jailing of New York Times reporter Judith Miller and the conviction of Cheney’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby.

This is the most definitive and comprehensive portrayal to date of the forces that led us into Iraq. Hoyle helps us understand how the American public was deceived and dragged into a war whose end is nowhere in sight. Going to War tells a story that is destined to join the ranks of the great follies of U.S. diplomatic and political history.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books (March 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312360355
• ISBN-13: 978-0312360351
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #489,597 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The only really necessary history of how we went to war, May 13, 2008

By	George Conk (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

That George W. Bush wanted to get rid of Saddam Hussein from day one there is no doubt. It was, after all, the lament of every conservative that his father and General Powell had put on the brakes 40 miles from Baghdad in 1991. The need to finish the job was a barroom and boardroom commonplace. 9/11 fueled the fear, the rage, and the reason to get them before they get us.

That Bush 2 was careless about who "them" was is historical fact, as is the falsity of his rationale - weapons of mass destruction. But how were Congress, the British, and the public brought along? The simple answer, like Robert Redford said in The Sting, is "he cheats". Yes, says the victim, but How does he do it? Russ Hoyle shows how. And it is a much more complicated tale than I for one thought.

Under the microscope Bush does not appear as the puppet of Cheney or Rumsfeld or both. Rather he is a major actor himself - buying into Blair's high road strategy - WMD as justification, and Colin Powell's concurrence that a UN vote was needed for legitimacy. The decision to follow the WMD/UN strategy greatly complicated the effort to mount the campaign against Saddam Hussein's regime. And greatly frustrated Cheney and Rumsfeld.

In the end the most important element may have been that the desire to take action, the belief that bad actors do bad things, led to the conclusion that possibility was probability, that fear was more important than fact. In that process the Director of the CIA knuckled under, contrary evidence was spurned, Congress trusted the untrustworthy, and the press was largely tricked and trapped into giving George Bush the free ride to Baghdad from which it will take us a generation to recover.

But a generation won't be long enough unless we learn the lessons of the necessity for independent political intelligence, and independence of judgment that are the teaching of Going to War, the only really necessary book if you want to know how we went to war in Iraq.