The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina

by Frank Rich

New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Rich examines the trail of fictions manufactured by the Bush administration from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina, exposing the most brilliant spin campaign ever waged

When America was attacked on 9/11, its citizens almost unanimously rallied behind its new, untested president as he went to war. What they didn't know at the time was that the Bush administration's highest priority was not to vanquish Al Qaeda but to consolidate its own power at any cost. It was a mission that could be accomplished only by a propaganda presidency in which reality was steadily replaced by a scenario of the White House's own invention---and such was that scenario's devious brilliance that it fashioned a second war against an enemy that did not attack America on 9/11, intimidated the Democrats into incoherence and impotence, and turned a presidential election into an irrelevant referendum on macho imagery and same-sex marriage.

As only he can, acclaimed New York Times columnist Frank Rich delivers a step-by-step chronicle of how skillfully the White House built its house of cards and how the institutions that should have exposed these fictions, the mainstream news media, were too often left powerless by the administration's relentless attack machine, their own post-9/11 timidity, and an unending parade of self-inflicted scandals (typified by those at The New York Times). Demonstrating the candor and conviction that have made him one of our most trusted and incisive public voices, Rich brilliantly and meticulously illuminates the White House's disturbing love affair with "truthiness," and the ways in which a bungled war, a seemingly obscure Washington leak, and a devastating hurricane at long last revealed the man-behind-the-curtain and the story that had so effectively been sold to the nation, as god-given patriotic fact.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, Audiobook, War, Journalism, American History

342 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Frank Rich is a columnist (and former chief theater critic) for The New York Times who focuses on American politics and popular culture. His column ran on the front page of the Sunday arts and leisure section from 2003 to 2005; it now appears in the expanded Sunday Week in Review section.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every thirty pages or so I put this book down to keep my blood from boiling.
Beginning with 9/11, President Bush was given leeway by congress and the press to pursue a “war on terror”. Watching events unfold on TV, or in the newspapers, it is difficult to get a longer perspective on the marketing, and selling, of the Iraq war as a part of the war on terror. This book provides perspective, drawing on public information to provide a richly detailed account of an administration that sold a bad idea.
Iraq war planning dates to days after Bush #43's first inauguration. A former cabinet member confirmed the fixation on Iraq began in the first national security meeting, months before 9/11(1). Early ideas included goading Hussein into attacking first.
After 9/11 Orwellian machinations began. The Bush team rewrote, or made up, history, emphasizing shaky 'evidence' such as yellowcake uranium from Niger, vague, unsubstantiated meetings in Prague, photographs of mobile biological weapons labs (aka port-a-potties being trucked to a construction site) and other misleading, or misinterpreted, 'evidence'. The hope was that repetition would lead to belief that Iraq had WMD and was tied to international terrorism.
For this plan to work, the administration had to prevent the United Nations Weapons Inspectors from finishing their job, since there was not only no credible evidence of WMD, there were none – but facts would not interrupt war plans. Inspectors were fired, impossible deadlines were set, and once the UN was stopped the alternative story could be shaped and sold in prime time as a cause for war.
Many people don't remember Dan Rather's interview with Saddam Hussein two months before the war. Rather pressed on WMD, and Saddam said I don't have any and haven't been since the first Gulf War. Hussein was a truthful government spokesman in the whole sordid run up to war.
The three overriding government principals in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four are:

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

I reread Nineteen Eighty Four last year during banned book week. The Nineteen Eighty Four Ministry of Truth and the current administration's PR machinery tried to remake or rewrite history to suit ill conceived notions. Fortunately, we have an independent press, and government officials that spoke out about the decision process. Too much wasn't adding up; journalists did their homework, dug out the truth, exposed manufactured 'evidence'. Even slavish early Bushs followers are turning on the administration, having been duped and taken for fools. One thing we have relearned is, the emperor has no clothes.
If your heart can stand it you should read this one.

1. Page 113, paraphrased from Paul O'Neil's book

Rating 4.5 of 5

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

II read The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina, Frank Rich’s account of George W. Bush’s presidency, during the run up to the release of the heavily redacted Mueller Report. This was definitely not a good idea.

Donald Trump’s uniquely despicable personality makes him an easy target of, well, pretty much everyone who isn’t racist or rich. But Trump’s reality-warping presidency obscures the awfulness of Bush’s time in office.

The story of the Bush administration’s craven dissembling as they manufactured the case for the invasion of Iraq should still fill every American with rage. But they couldn’t have done it without the assistance of a compliant media. The bootlickers at Fox News fell in line, but so did so-called respectable media figures like Bob Woodward, Judith Miller and Robert Novak. They all rolled over for Rove, Rumsfeld and Cheney.

What was most disturbing to me about The Greatest Story Ever Sold was how the administration went after not just the dissenters, but anyone who exposed their lies. That included people in the CIA and the State Department.

Sadly, Bush’s playbook has been adopted by the current administration. At a time when massive spin machines churn out partisan talking points designed to keep us in front of our screens, The Greatest Story Ever Sold is an antidote to the breathless reactions to tweets, speeches and press statements.

Rich lays out the facts in the administration’s own words. These assertions are bolstered by newspaper accounts and augmented with quotes culled from various media sources. It’s an outstanding example of contemporary history that everyone should read because we clearly haven’t learned our lesson.

Strangely, Rich doesn’t consider the cost to the Iraqi people in his accounting. Rich’s story is hyper-focused on American politicians, media figures and troops. Perhaps this decision was made to present the failings of the Bush administration in a context that would appeal to an American audience. But clearly, the Iraqi people paid the biggest price for America’s unprovoked attack on their nation, and that should be acknowledged.

While history will not be kind to the Trump administration, at least they haven’t started any wars—yet. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove had war on their minds from the moment they set foot in the Oval Office. The blood of hundreds of thousands of people is on their hands, and they know it.

Sadly, not enough Americans do.

[Jeremy Lyon · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're a member of that dwindling population of American citizens who sees George Bush, President, as anything other than disaster incarnate, don't read this book (or this review). And please don't vote in November.

For the rest of us, there's nothing in this book that you don't already know. But by packing all of the administration's incompetence, distortions, manipulations and outright lies of the last eight years into a single volume, Frank Rich brings home how completely destructive the Bush White House has been for so many things most of care about.

I wouldn't read this book if you're trying to motivate yourself to do something about it all: it's kind of like trying to light a barbecue with liquid oxygen. You're more likely to ignite a flare of righteous indignation that reduces everything to ash than end up with a tasty grilled steak.

But hey, if you need a reminder why you should vote in November, this is it.

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook in my car. This book is a chronological (literally, it follows a strict timeline) account of the Bush Administration through the publishing of the book. It starts with W's upbringing and why he's so insecure of himself and rolls right into the war planning (or lack thereof). I have to admit that this was depressing as hell. I had forgotten many of the scandals and foul-ups over the last few years (since there were so many fresh ones to replace them), so to have them all retold and expounded upon via hindsight was a little frustrating. You just end up scratching your head, saying to yourself, "really, America, really?" So if you don't want to do that to yourself, you may want to skip it. However, if you need something to motivate you to make sure someone like W is never elected again, you must have this in your collection.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Are they really so manipulative? Are they really willing to put appearance and salesmanship over substance and responsible governing? Do they really have so little regard for their country's citizenry? Do they really lie that much? Do they really think we're that stupid? Do they really think they can backtrack and cover every mistake?

Well, apparently they are and they do. This book clinches it: I have no doubt that if George Bush could run again, his minions could once again manipulate the masses into voting for him.

This book traces Bush's forays into foreign and domestic affairs and his complete disregard for fact while developing his response. Most interesting is Bush's use of the media, so effectively at first and then with growing disdain as questions about his motives arise.

It's all in here - Bush's problems over the lack of WMD, his disinterest in Osama bin Laden and 9/11, his vastly delayed response to Katrina, the Valerie Plame case, and the growing unrest in his own party, who slowly, latently, is beginning to see exactly what kind of person they've championed.

Eminently readable and entertaining in its style, I still found I could only take this book a chapter at a time. Sometimes it's easier to read a book that is forthright about its political bias. This one is so factual and concrete, with so much evidence to support its theme, with such far reaching consequences, it transcends the political. It's just sad.

[Niki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rich's book traces the latticework of lies built by the Bush (II) administration to guide the nation into war with Iraq. He focuses not only on the administration's public relations techniques to sell the war, but the press's complicity. But why the press choose to abdicate its investigatory role goes relatively unexamined. (Or rather, it's examined, but not as deeply as I would have preferred.)

If you hadn't lived through the build-up to the Iraq war and only had Rich's book as a guide, you would never know that there *was* quite a bit of skepticism over the administration's claims, and that even on the eve of war, plenty of people were not only against it, but clear about the administration's motives and its deception. That those things were known and didn't have any effect seems to be a fascinating and troubling part of the story that future works on this question should analyze in greater detail.

A good book, though, for people who were outside the political debate surrounding the Iraq war. There's a handy timeline at the back that juxtaposes what the adminstration said and what it was actually doing.

[Henry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned most of what I know about '80s American politics by watching SNL reruns on Comedy Central; fortunately, future generations won't have to suffer that show to know what's going on right now because they'll be able to read the breezy, current events sum up that is Frank Rich. Putting everything that's happened lately (ca. 2000-2006) in context leads to some valuable insights, especially with Rich's background as a theater/pop culture critic. Exceptional sentence structure, a large vocabularly, and a good sense of humor are a big plus, too. (He's a good writer!) Not the sort of book that will be remembered and reprinted for centuries, it will at least remind you, with dazzling prose, of how clear the case is that Bush & Co. are homicidal liars and the press their servants. It even comes with a valuable timeline that shows you when the Administration specifically lied and how.

[Evan Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

While certainly a book that may appeal a bit more to Democrats and those that lean to the left, his approach in tackling the Bush administration's is a reasonable, well-researched, and meticulously crafted one that few rational people could argue with. It was a joy to read not only because I strongly agree with the politics of it, but also because Rich is such an excellent writer that the story itself becomes interesting to read. In addition to that, I learned so much about the events of the past six years that I did not know before, by reading this book. Through the elegant use of words, good humor, and a great many facts and footnotes, Rich crafts an eloquent argument (that I wish I had the knowledge to develop and put forth myself) in dismantling the Bush administration's facade of deceit.

[Jimbonk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good book. Eye opening on the whole "Bush is a fucking jerk-off retard" mindset. It gives you a list of all the shit this asshole (and his friends) have put the mindless country through, and why, and how. The author is of course a lefty, liberal, democrat, or what have you. But he manages to tell this story as fact and not bias. It is not a book used to rile people up to hate our current government. It is simply a chronological recount of the things that actually happened, that these people actually did. Rich simply says, "Hey, look at this! Can you believe this actually happened? These people are incredible!" From the almighty 9/11 to Katrina, this book shows how Bush and his cronies got us stuck in a quagmire in Iraq, and why. Read it. Be inspired. Vote.

[Jose Camacho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally finished after a while, learned a lot but instead of just finding what he did interesting or intriguing it just made me mad to whole time where I just got annoyed or angry that it made me stop reading. I thought I enjoyed nonfiction reads but I really needed to audiobook to get through it. Even though it just made me mad, I do enjoy the book and getting to finally understand what made his tenure bad, as well as getting to learn more about history. Good read but I think I might just stick to fictional stories for my next few reads.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bush and Cheney are diabolical. This was an eye opening and interesting perspective on their war crimes.

[Twain · Rating 4 out of 5]

“a senior presidential advisor told the journalist Ron Suskind that there was no longer any need for the ‘reality-based community’ epitomized by journalists and vowed the administration would create its ‘own reality’. The conversation between the adviser and Suskind dated back to the summer of 2002- just before the White House started to roll out its new product of an Iraq War. The adviser’s words explained much of what happened thereafter, from the hyping of Saddam’s nuclear weapons and Queda connections to the Operation Iraqi Freedom double bill of ‘Shock and Awe’ and ‘Saving Private Lynch’ to the president’s premature announcement of the end of major combat operations. A week after that May 2023 victory, which was the grandest of the administration’s alternative realities, a reporter had queried Rumsfield in a Pentagon press briefing about journalistic reports ‘that a sense of public order is still lacking’ in Iraq. The secretary of sefense, echoing the adviser Suskind talked to, responded dismissively to the news of a growing insurgency, ridiculing reporters for showing only ‘slices of the truth’. He had the full truth of course: according to the administration’s own reality, the reconstruction effort was right on track” p160-161.

Looks at mainly the propaganda of the bush White House and kinda how inadequate Bush himself was. However, with an elite propaganda apparatus, and a press fully asleep at the wheel, the Bush administration showed that you can just lie, spin and manipulate your way out of any news you find inconvenient to the storyline you are pushing.

The first chapter dives into the vapidness and emptyness of the late 90s early 2000s culture was awesome. The takedown of the boomers made my heart warm, and going after Bush as a smug entitled self righteous narcissist was sick.

Looks at how the administration tried to spin Saddam having WMDs, the made up story about Jessica Lynch, not allowing access to the press to take photos of American caskets coming home, using Chalabi to lie about the Saddam-Al Queda link, lying about a meeting between a 9/11 hijacker and Iraqi intelligence in Prague, the mission accomplished banner, etc. . It called the admin the Enron and CEO presidency (and Enron was very supportive of Bush, actually another thing he tried to lie about once the scandal happened) that the administration was willing to lie, spin, omit data that didn’t fit their narratives, and how a failing American press either went along with it credulously or pushed back in minor and insignificant ways. At one point the admin actually leaked the name of the wife of a former ambassador because the ambassador was asked to investigate Saddam buying parts of a nuclear bomb in Africa and was critical of the admin. The wife had a top secret CIA job and the admin completely blew her cover to get back at a critic. Also looks at how Bush would go and do a photo op with a group and talk about supporting them and then cut funding to them. Bush actually did this for example with the police (first ACAB/defund president?). Gets into how they went after dissidents of the Iraq war and how those people were painted as Saddam loving leftists how some things never change. Looks at how Tenet at the CIA and FBI officers sent in reports of impending Al Queda terrorist attacks, only to really ignore them. Gets into how a few former cabinet members who once fired claimed the admin was obsessed with figuring out any pretext to go to war with Iraq and shaped intelligence reporting to fit their narrative. Gets into a lot of spin in Iraq, like the toppling of the statue of Saddam, the “we’ll be greeted as liberators”, a lot of bungling in the administration of society post invasion that they had no real plans for besides giving out huge contracts to companies close to the admin. Looks at the lies around Tillmans death, being difficult with the 9/11 commission, Abu Ghraib.

Looks at characters sympathetic to Bush or indirectly a part of their spin team like Fox News or Rush Limbaugh or the Drudge Report or outlets like that. Gets into a little the complete failure of the press during the early 2000s and them basically capitulating fully to the White House after 9/11. Looks at the book Bob Woodward wrote about Bush after 9/11 that seemed more like a hagiography than any real reporting. The only good reporter who is consistently mentioned in this book is Seymour Hersh, who comes up constantly as a thorn in the side of the administration, one of the very few journalists who is actually good at his job.

Looks at some of the actual bullshit around Bush’s cushy military gig during Vietnam in the Texas national guard (called the champagne unit basically a safe place for rich or well connected people to send their kids to avoid conflict) and gets into how Bush didn’t even really complete his service or receive satisfactory progress reports (if you want a fuller story check out Family of Secrets).

Gets into the 04 election; what an awful candidate Kerry was, both of them trying to cosplay as normal people, the right wing media campaign to discredit Kerry’s military service. Looks at how the admin played politics with terrorists attacked and asked DHS to round up “one terrorism fighting photo op a month for the president” p145. Ashcroft used fake “terrorism updates” to steal the news headlines from Dems during the DNC and when Kerry picked his running mate. The admin kept warning of imminent Al Queda attacks that never came between Memorial Day and Election Day 2004.

Briefly gets into how Kerry failed to present any real alternative to Bush on the war in Iraq, and how one poorly worded poll got spun by mainstream media into a belief of an ascendant conservative culture. That led to cable channels self censoring for fear of backlash from this nonexistent base or fear the government would punish them on behalf of these mythical voters that delivered bush the election. Abu Grhaib military tribunals, the CIA use of waterboarding, footage of a US soldier shooting an injured Iraqi combatant in a mosque, even Saving Private Ryan (because it had cuss words) were all censored, completely removed from TV channels, or very much downplayed on mainstream news for fear of upsetting the admin or this mythical socially conservative majority.

Looks at how the admin papered over the lack of armor and equipment it was sending the troops. A troop who asked Rumsfeld a question about it was called a traitor. “a secret Pentagon study revealed ‘that as many as 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to the upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor’ and that while such armor had been available since 2003 ‘until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection. But in December 2004, the issue of insufficient armor was quickly drowned out by the cable and talk-radio arguments over whether Specialist Wilson should or should not have consulted with an embedded reporter about the wording of his question to Rumsfield” p 158. Weapons caches under American control were also frequently getting looted by insurgents and used on American troops.

The part about the fake news sent me. “The New York Times found that, all told, at least 20 federal agencies had made and distributed hundreds of fake news segments over the past four years, sending them even in big markets such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago” p169. Basically the admin would hire a fake journalist to do a fake freelance segment where they asked a bunch of softball questions to a government official, and then they’d send it out to local TV stations hoping they’d run it to fill time. They did a similar thing with the Pentagon Channel. They planted a fake journalist hired by higher ups in the RNC in the press room to ask softballs questions to various press secretaries, and then had no answer as to how someone using a fake name got through the government background checks without the White House’s assistance or knowledge (they knew). He got called on frequently during bad news cycles like Abu Ghraib to toss softballs to the press secretary.

Goes through what happened when the press finally got disillusioned with White House propaganda and started questioning the war in Iraq after public opinion turned on it. Goes through the handful of journalists who had the info right ahead of the war, and how little attention and what low placements they got in mainstream news and how some of their stories were even delayed. Really goes after Woodward for his shoddy reporting which was great to see.

Mentions conservative media attacking some Sheehan lady who was camping outside Bush’s ranch because she wanted to discuss the death of her son in Iraq. The conservative media rabid attack dogs were good at their game.

Timeline at the end of when the White House knew things and when the press knew things was pretty cool


Ok so let me get this straight. The left hated George W. Bush. However, Bush cut police salaries, Bush oversaw multiple massive unnecessary blunders in Iraq that led to many preventable deaths of US military members (more on that like 9/10 short paragraphs below). Bush did way more to harm troops and police than all these ACAB/“I hate the military industrial complex” leftists combined. Bush ignored intelligence warnings that led to attacks on the Pentagon (military industrial complex) and the World Trade Center (a huge hub and symbol of capitalism). Bush oversaw the dot com bubble burst and when that failed to make people realize capitalism is bullshit he engineered the Great Recession which was the biggest meltdown in capitalism seen in 80 years. Bush had his VP go shoot one of his boys on a hunting trip to show us that guns aren’t safe ever, even in recreational sporting events. Bush told a bunch of lies that the press ran with that could have been easily fact checked but weren’t, showing the untrustworthiness of the US press way better than some robust case study of US media by a linguistics professor. His admin constantly attacked the mainstream press and Bush largely refused to do interviews with them, further delegitimizing them. Bush used Abu Ghraib and Gitmo to show how evil the CIA and more broadly how evil the concept of prisons were. Bush, unlike his 04 adversary Kerry, bravely used his father’s connections to avoid fighting communists in Vietnam, a war Kerry participated in and the left supported Kerry? Who’s the real leftist here?

[Steven Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that gets one to thinking, but it can also irritate one.
Its unremittingly critical tone toward the Bush Administration puts one off. Goodness knows that the Bush Administration engaged in "Swift Boating" at the slightest provocation (i.e., if one disagree with the official Administration line), but critics might better refrain from going over the top.

Nonetheless, that said, the volume is interesting and valuable reading. By now, it is clear that much of the information used to justify the invasion of Iraq was bogus, whether through honest errors or through manipulation. The book provides ample illustration of such errors and certainly suggests that there was some degree of manipulation of information to "hype" the case for war.

Rich's book argues that both the media and the so-called "loyal opposition," Democrats, were unwilling to explore the contentions and evidence advanced by the Administration in the run up to the Iraqi invasion. They accepted without much reflection the "spin" of the Administration, its constructions of reality. If accurate, of course, this reflects poorly on the political system's ability to develop "checks and balances" to address key issues. Democrats appear to have been cowed by the political implications of resisting the movement toward war; some media figures appeared all too willing to join the Administration's "spin" machine.

One additional twist to the volume is the inclusion of a nearly eighty page appendix at the end, in which Rich notes in the left hand column what the Administration knew and, listed in the right hand column, what it was expressing publicly. By juxtaposing the two, readers can assess in their own minds the extent to which the Administration was spinning when it was aware that evidence did not live up to public expressions. This is a most intriguing, and useful, feature of this book.

While this book would be more effective with less anger, it is a valuable part of the discourse on the "War on Terror" that adds considerably to the larger discussion.

[Rajesh Kurup · Rating 3 out of 5]

Halfway into the Obama presidency and I remember why I said I'd rather vote for a shrub over Bush after reading this book. The level of deception and manipulation that occurred during the Bush administration was truly astounding. What's unbelievable is reading about people who are joining "Miss me Yet" groups on Facebook. I really wish that voters could read this book when they go to polls in November 2012.

Ok, this is a book review, not the opportunity for a rant. But, I suspect that one's reaction to this book will be purely based upon one's politics. Rich has thoroughly researched his subject and does a solid job of laying out his case. His case is that the purpose of the Bush administration was to serve the Bush administration. As he says, had 9/11 never occurred, Bush was setting out to be a very non-descript President. He got to power and went about handing out jobs to undeserving candidates whose sole achievement was helping get Bush elected. Which would be fine had 9/11 and Katrina never happened. But they did and the American public paid the price for the gross incompetence of the Bushies. And we will pay for a long time. 2 unfunded wars, massive tax cuts for the wealthy and an unfunded Medicare prescription later, and the economy is in shambles. Not to mention the where the poorly handled wars has left our foreign policy and reputation.

Central to his case was the media compliance early into the post 9/11 world. The media, including respected newspapers such as the New York Times gladly went along for the ride as Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney laid out the case for the Iraq war. It was only after the weapons of mass destruction never materialized that they began to actually investigate. The same also holds true for Congress. BOTH sides of the aisle played along and approved the war and it's crazy funding (outside of the budget), the tax cuts, the deregulation of Wall Street, the expansion of Medicare, etc.

So here's to hoping that we Won't Get Fooled Again. But, I doubt it.

[Will Byrnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subtitle tells it all, “the decline and fall of truth from 9/11 to Katrina.” This book is about how the Bush administration, with their willing accomplices in the media have made a casualty of truth. It is not, as one might expect it to be, a compilation of his NY Times op ed pieces, but a well ordered, easy to read overview of what lies were told, when, by whom and to whom. Good stuff. I doubt that any Republican would get past ten pages though. Although Rich offers plenty of concrete examples and reasons for his views, he allows his scorn of these evil gnomes to shine through a bit too obviously. There is a lengthy, 70 pages or so, section at the back end with two columns. On the left, are the actual events in a timeline. On the right are the statements (lies) that were told and when. A nifty piece. Although I enjoyed the book and it never hurts to get information reinforcement for my challenged memory, it did strike me that Rich was preaching to the choir, as I doubt many who are not already clued in to the current white house crowd would plunk down their cash for the book.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected a lot more from this book because Frank Rich wrote it. I had seen him on some news programs about current and cultural events and knew he had written for the NY Times. I just wanted it to be more. I felt like it was a laundry list of events without detailed explanation and analysis. I thought Mr. Rich was going to give his take on events and actions, but he chose to just present them in the order that has now been discovered that they happened in. He's looking back on things that happened anywhere from 2 to 7 years ago and I thought he could tell us about the why instead of just the when or how. I would recommend this book to anyone just wanting to see the order that the Bush adminstration did things in and what happened before and after.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very interesting read. Most people know the media bends the facts and skew things to fit some agenda. But what happens when a government does this? Hires people to fake news? Fake truth? And how do they get away with it? Anyone of any political persuaion should read this book. Just because this is a critque of a Republican administration doesn't mean they are the only ones to have done this. People need to develop a healthy skepticisim and NOT buy into the Limbaughs and O'Reilly's of this world... or people from the opposite side. Find out who is behind the so called "news", the "experts" who appear on TV. People will be surprised who pays whom to say what and for what reason. Follow the money.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

everyone was starting to salivate over bush last week as he opened his library so i read this book to recap his tenure in office. anyone who had someone killed or injured in iraq or, for that matter, any iraqi, should be irate that bush, cheney, rumsfeld, rice, wolfowitz, feitz, powell and rove are not rotting in jail for their crimes. i followed all this in real time but seeing it all presented in one book made it stunningly clear how dangerous it is to elect a shallow-thinking ambitious person to the presidency. its amazing that the u.s. survived him.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just when you thought you'd been furious with the Bush administration for the last time, another book comes along to get your blood boiling all over again. Rich concentrates on the "selling" part of everything from the wars to Katrina, with emphasis on the complicity of the media. Compelling reading. And there's even a "final word" on why we went into Iraq--which is more cynical than any I had heard before but pretty convincing when you've read the whole saga. And the man can write.

[Bren fall in love with the sea. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it awhile ago. I was not a fan of Bush though he looks like Prince Charming next to who have we now.

The book goes over everything from 9/11 t o Katrina and does not take it easy on the Bush administration at all .

It also offers the reader alot of information about what was going on behind the scenes. An incredible read but guarenteed to get your blood boiling so maybe read it when you are in a bit of a mellow mood.

[Travis Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quality Bush/Media bashing book, though not quite as good as Al Gore's "The Assualt on Reason". This books focuses on the media's complicity in feeding lies to the public rather than pointing out the ignorance of the masses as the blame.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last chapter ends with, “History tells us that politics is cyclical in America, and the Bush cycle may well be in its last throes. But the culture in which it thrived still rides high, waiting to be exploited by another master manipulator from either political party if Americans don’t start to take it back.” This line hits too close to home for where we are for US politics today in 2024.

This book has been both insightful and frustrating to learn about how how the propaganda machine of the US had changed very little despite being three presidents past Bush.

As a small child during the start of Bush’s tenure, I don’t have much context for the details of his presidency or his person besides the “war criminal” allegations towards him in the current day, and the fact he paints veterans’ portraits. It’s astounding to read the fumbles of the Bush administration both leading up to 9/11 and the events that took place after. Someone on the Bush PR team was very crafty in keeping information from the public and/or releasing information at opportune times to distract away from said fumbles. For example, I had never heard of the FBI whistle-blower, Coleen Rowley, and her warnings of Zacarias Moussaoui (aka the only person ever convicted in U.S. court in connection with the 11 September attacks). Another quote from the book that rings true to my memory of the time, as well as continues to this day as part of news broadcasts is “..that the war would be the ultimate reality show […]. Its life-and-death perils were airbrushed whenever possible in the same soothing style as the artificial perils on Survivor.” I wonder if social media had been around at that time if the Bush admin would’ve been able to get away with everything in the same capacity. Regardless, it’s interesting to read how traditional media is influenced (or pressured) by politicians to sway the public, particularly in regards to the Iraq War.

The American hubris demonstrated is sickening, as is Bush’s newfound career as a painter of veteran portraits given the fact that he blatantly didn’t respect military members during the Iraq war (ie banning press coverage of dead military members returning home in flag draped coffins, and not attending any memorials or funerals for troops killed in the war), along with publication of (falsified) “positive” letters from soldiers in Iraq, the spin the administration took with Pat Tillmans death, the disdain for Nightline’s reading of the dead as not noteworthy, the downplaying the counts of the dead, and the dismissiveness of the torture of Iraqis by American soldiers in Abu Ghraib.

This book is nauseating the more you learn about the spin or omission of information the Bush administration used to justify their actions in the Middle East. These actions have far reaching consequences not only then, it for the future; military actions and misinformation can radicalize a population, as we’ve seen time and time again, and people across the world suffer for it. It’s hard not to see the parallels from the early 2000s to the Vietnam era, as well as how the Bush administration’s actions set up the global future of the 2020s.

In addition to this book, some supplemental materials that are relevant to peruse include Frontline’s Truth, War, and Consequences documentary and Al Jazeera’s Control Room (both on YouTube). I’ve also found Netflix’s Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror, WNYC’s podcast Blindspot: The Road to 9/11, the podcast Conflicted by Message Heard (at least the first three episodes of season 1 - 9/11, The War on Terror, and Iraq), as well as Evergreen Podcast’s Conflicted: A History Podcast series called Ghosts in the Mountains. These were helpful to me in learning the history before and leading up to 9/11 and the consequences afterwards.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had always known that Bush was dishonest--because people told me so and because I study history and geopolitics--but I hadn't realized just how deep, pervasive, and persistent the lying was. It clearly was not just a case of bad groupthink or of "hoping" that Saddam Hussein had WMDs. Bush and his crony Cabinet engaged in levels of corruption, propagandizing, and deceit that are staggering even in an era of Trump elections. It makes me realize that Trump, though a very different character than Bush (more vocal, more asinine, and yet also perhaps more cunning) has benefited greatly from the post-truth void leftover by the Bush administration's consistent dismantling of reality.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my 2023 Iraq War revisit I am really trying to nail down a solid "why". This book does a great job outlining some of the domestic political dynamics, Bush & his admin's public statements, and some great analysis into how we were sold the Iraq War. The last portion of the book tries to answer the "why". The author credibly hypothesizes that we'll probably never truly know, which is totally insane, but probably had something to do with the midterm elections and wanting to capitalize on the quick Afghanistan conquest. Wow.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

this tells you a lot about the bushes and cheney and rumsfeld ...

[Lesley · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only reason it gets 2 stars is because a of the few points that were presented seemed as though the author was grasping, therefor making everything a little suspect.

[Eric Grunder · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you think politial spin at the top began with the Trump administration, think again.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairly interesting, but I've read better political bools covering some of the same territory.

[Chelsea · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't like his writing and view on Bush.

[Tucker · Rating 3 out of 5]

The organizing principle of this book is clear: It is a comprehensive list of everything the Bush administration did wrong, big and small, in the arguments leading up to the war in Iraq and in the handling of the war itself, until 2006 when this book was published. If you cannot name any of these mistakes, you would do well to choose this book; if you're basically familiar with the accusations that eventually came to light in the press, you won't learn anything new, but you might still appreciate having all the references to the famous gaffes and falsehoods in a single volume.

The author strongly criticizes the "spin" that the Bush administration put on the war, that is, he argues that they used a propagandist slant that selectively ignored reality. The problem is that the author could be criticized for doing the same thing. The book is several hundred pages long; each page includes several points on which the Bush administration did something ridiculous or deceptive. So there are about a thousand negative statements about the presidency. Notably, there is not a single positive statement about the Bush presidency anywhere in the book. There is not a single mention of anything he did right. It is one long rant about everything wrong.

I am not the best person to defend the Bush administration. I'm not fluent in the "other side's" talking points and I don't wish to be. Yet it seems to me that even if a president set out to deliberately commit a thousand sins, he would do at least one thing right by accident. The author's inability or refusal to identify anything that the Bush administration might have done well indicates that the author, too, is creating a work of spin.

Some of his complaints against the Bush administration are more serious than others. That military officials attended an inaugural ball where a war journalist joked that he was overpaid and the musical performers sang "Clap your hands!" to the amputee soldiers in attendance is surely a minor embarrassment compared to the allegation that the invasion of Iraq was based on false information and that the entire war was mishandled.

Missing from this book is any sustained attempt to inquire into the administration's motive for lying or otherwise coloring the truth about Iraq. "If Bush, Cheney, and company were lying to themselves at the same time they were lying to the country," Rich writes, "the best that can be said in their defense is that they made the same tragic error of all propagandists who come to ruin: they fell for their own scam." But why was there a scam in the first place? This question will be left to other psychologists and historians.