It was just after Christmas 1979. The Marxist-Leninist Government of Afghanistan was visibly tottering, and the Soviet Union, always nervous about problems on its borders, especially in the "Stans" - and doubtlessly for other reasons too - invaded and took control - well, sort of.
The reaction of the West, most particularly the USA, was hostile - trade embargo, boycott of the Moscow Olympics, and supply of money and weapons to the Mujahedin, including a Mr. O. bin Laden.
Fast-forward one-quarter of a century. The USA invaded Iraq and took control - well, sort of. It did not invade Saudi Arabia, from where nearly all the 9/11 terrorists came. It invaded a country half a world away, which represented no direct threat at all to the USA and which was not about to collapse in chaos. The US promptly added the missing chaos.
And yet the USA regarded this as OK. Is this really the appropriate action for a country that constantly portrays itself as the shining beacon of democracy and decency? The country whose WW2 military tribunals decreed the unpleasant Japanese practice of waterboarding to be torture? Can anyone detect just the slightest double standard here?
Certainly Iraq had a bombastic, opportunistic leader who was a thoroughly nasty man, but then the world is full of such people, some even US allies. Moreover, the fanatical puritans of the 9/11 Al Quaeda regarded Saddam Hussein as an apostate.
This book does not seek to answer the most perplexing question of all (why?), but to show how the Bush Administration set out to convince the US people that a war against Iraq was necessary, even essential, to the security of the USA. Using official documents, the book shows the systematic distortions, exaggerations, half-truths and downright lies used by the Bushies to sell a totally unnecessary war. The excuse was Saddam's reported desire for, and even alleged near-possession of, "weapons of mass destruction". The con-artistry described here is mind-boggling. The lies, humbug and distortions went right to the very top, and everyone - the intelligence agencies, the UN and its weapons inspectorate - were pressured to deliver the desired results, and all evidence to the contrary of that needed to make the case for war was doctored, ignored or buried .
The resulting war has cost over 4000 American lives and (usually unmentioned) those of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis. It has left the country in a mess from which it will take a very long time to recover. It introduced terrorism and religious fanaticism into an area where previously there were none. It has dragged the US's former good name through the mud. Worst of all, it empowered Iran, to which it supplied an excuse to seek nuclear weapons. Moreover, as Iraq has a Shia majority, eventual US withdrawal could lead to an even further extension of the power of the mullahs.
All in all, this book makes for thoroughly depressing reading. One can only hope that this is required reading in government circles everywhere, so that the exercise will never be repeated. Mind you, given the continued fabrications of Dubya and his British buddy Phoney Bliar, one wonders...
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