The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq

"The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq" is the first book to hold the president and his team accountable for the government's campaign of disinformation leading up to the war in Iraq. The administration repeatedly attested that Saddam Hussein had developed weapons of mass destruction and was close to using them; downplayed the cost and risk of the proposed invasion and occupation; shamelessly evoked the atrocious abuse of power of Hussein and his family while brooking no commitment to rebuild the country after the terrifying "shock and awe" campaign, or to do anything to improve the lot of the Iraqi people; and, most outrageously, provided substanceless theory linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks of September 11, thereby cynically manipulating the anger and sorrow of the American citizenry. The charade has culminated in the slow bloodletting of U.S. forces still stationed in Iraq, held there because it would not be politically expedient to admit the failure of "democratization."

While Bush II appears intent on conducting an unending global war against "evildoers," little public debate has gone into assessing the aims and strategies of such a broad campaign. In "The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq," coauthors Christopher and Robert Scheer and Lakshmi Chaudhry of the influential web magazine AlterNet.org have aggregated the hard questions that the purported leadership of the U.S. must answer.

Christopher Scheer is managing editor of AlterNet.org, the popular news and commentary website. Scheer has written screenplays for Oliver Stone and previously worked for the "San Francisco Examiner." Robert Scheer isthe author of six books, the host of NPR affiliate KCRW's "Left, Right, and Center," and a contributing editor to both the "Los Angeles Times" and "The Nation." Lakshmi Chaudhry is an editor at Alternet.org.