War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine

by Norman Solomon

From the acclaimed veteran political analyst, a searing new exposé of how the American military, with the help of the media, conceals its perpetual war

“No one is better at exposing the dynamics of media and politics that keep starting and continuing wars. War Made Invisible will provide the fresh and profound clarity that our country desperately needs.” —Daniel Ellsberg
More than twenty years ago, 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan set into motion a hugely consequential shift in America’s foreign a perpetual state of war that is almost entirely invisible to the American public. War Made Invisible , by the journalist and political analyst Norman Solomon, exposes how this happened, and what its consequences are, from military and civilian casualties to drained resources at home. From Iraq through Afghanistan and Syria and on to little-known deployments in a range of countries around the globe, the United States has been at perpetual war for at least the past two decades. Yet many of these forays remain off the radar of average Americans. Compliant journalists add to the smokescreen by providing narrow coverage of military engagements and by repeating the military’s talking points. Meanwhile, the increased use of high technology, air power, and remote drones has put distance between soldiers and the civilians who die. Back at home, Solomon argues, the cloak of invisibility masks massive Pentagon budgets that receive bipartisan approval even as policy makers struggle to fund the domestic agenda. Necessary, timely, and unflinching, War Made Invisible is an eloquent moral call for counting the true costs of war.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, War, History, Military Fiction, Audiobook, American History

272 pages, Hardcover

First published June 13, 2023

About the author

Norman Solomon is an American journalist, media critic, antiwar activist, and former candidate in 2012 for the United States House of Representatives.

Solomon is a longtime associate of the media watch group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR).

In 1997 he founded the Institute for Public Accuracy, which works to provide alternative sources for journalists, and served as its executive director until 2010.

Solomon's weekly column, "Media Beat", was in national syndication from 1992 to 2009.

Reviews

[David Wineberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the one hand, War Made Invisible, Norman Solomon’s latest book, plays right to me. I have always been offended at the blatant racism of American wars. It always infuriated me that the very people America was supposedly defending were called Gooks or Towelheads or Hadjis by American soldiers in their countries. That mainstream media played up every single American military death overseas, but totally ignored the huge piles of civilian deaths caused directly by the Americans supposedly defending them. In fact, it was the Americans who were killing them.


On the other hand I understand that war is not fair, is not meant to be fair, and frankly, it is important to fool the entire population into thinking Americans are the good guys in every way. After all, how different is it than Putin forcing the whole country to call his invasion a special operation and never a war? Where the number of military deaths is a state secret, just like the USA blocked reporters from seeing caskets repatriated. As I read, I felt trapped between a rock and a hard place.


The lies Solomon cites are endless and eye-wateringly gigantic in scope as well as number. In particular, the chapter on the mainstream media is revolting in its revelations. Management at the major tv networks forced all staff to toe the government line. No criticism of the war (no matter which one of the many) would be allowed. At CNN, there would have to be constant reminders to viewers of the role Afghanistan played in 9/11 (none at all) when reporting on life there. Civilian victims were irrelevant, never worth profiling. The lies that led to the war were not to be exposed once the war got underway. It wasn’t long before the war was barely ever even mentioned. Yet it was America’s longest.


Phil Donahue lost his long running hit tv show precisely because NBC did not want to be seen as questioning America’s bogus reasons for invading both Afghanistan and Iraq, neither of which had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks, which was the official excuse for those wars, along with lies about weapons of mass destruction, which the USA holds in abundance. (At the same time, Saudi Arabia, which provided ¾ of the 9/11 terrorists, still sold its oil to the US, and the US continued to sell it its most sophisticated arms and training in them.)


The same went for NBC reporter Ashley Banfield, who dared to question their legitimacy in a speech not even broadcast on the network. She was banished from the airwaves, held to her contract to show up every day, but given no office, no camera, no computer and no assignments. No one was allowed to have an opinion other than the official one. So much for the vaunted American free press, specified in the US Constitution.


Solomon’s chapters are neatly divided, and then highly detailed. Yet they are a breeze to read, and offensive in every conceivable way. They will be offensive to ultra patriots, hawks, doves, peaceniks and roadkill alike. That universal offensiveness, almost by definition, implies strong truth.


In one chapter, he shows how simple repetition of a lie or the continual omission of a fact eventually become truth themselves, a guiding principle of government in war.


Another chapter focuses on the idiotic concept of a humane war, in which Americans are so highly proficient killing machines they can take out specific targets (people) without harming anyone else. This was always farcical, and now, true figures show the extent of the lie. While America claims several thousand of its soldiers were killed in its newfangled remote wars, innocent civilian casualties number in the hundreds of thousands thanks to its humane tactics.


Along with the “highly targeted” bombings of weddings, funerals and public markets, there is the lie of the drones. Solomon cites experts admitting that seeing though the camera of a drone is like looking at scene with one eye closed and the other looking through a drink straw: “a resolution equal to the legal definition of blindness for drivers.” The man with his finger on the red button has no idea what is going on on the ground. And since drones fly fast, their sound only reaches the scene after they have passed, so no one can run for cover or know what hit them.


Another chapter focuses on race, comparing the bleeding heart coverage of all the brave suffering of (white) Ukrainian victims of Russian war crimes, to American war crimes of exactly the same nature against victims who were black, brown, Muslim – anything other than WASP. The hypocrisy of American coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war is massively offensive to the world outside the USA.


And of course, the so-called War on Terror comes in for some sane reflection. To no one’s great shock (and awe), the War on Terror has created at least twice as many armed terrorist groups as were busy hating Americans before war was declared. It has immiserated millions of victims, turning their economies back 500 years. It has also embittered them to America and Americans. And thereby perpetuated itself. Solomon cites investigative reporter Nick Turse: ”The U.S. government – responsible for up to 60 million displaced people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia, Syria and Yemen due to it war on terror – bears special responsibility.”


As US generals have publicly stated, terror is a tactic, not a target. You cannot go to war against terror. And you certainly cannot defeat terror in a classic war. You can never declare victory over terror, and terror cannot ever surrender. It’s an old saying, but a good one: every war has two losers.


While it has fooled most, and continues to, there are often a select few who see through it. Even at the time, Joan Didion claimed: “We had seen, most importantly, the insistent use of September 11 to justify the reconception of America’s correct role in the world as one of initiating and waging virtually perpetual war.” While government and the media cheer on the lie daily. Solomon cites 22 countries on four continents subject to unrestricted American bombing since 9/11/2001. The USA continues to maintain well over 800 military bases – overseas alone. War in America is a constant. It is a normal part of life, hardly noticed. There is no draft, no rationing, no war bonds, no clothing drives. It is just noise in the background of life as usual. In Solomon’s terms, it is invisible.


Russia is vilified in the media for using cluster bombs in Ukraine, but no such criticism befalls America when it employs them with the same horrific results. The simple truth is that while 140 countries agreed to cease their use, Russia and the USA refused to sign on. American soldiers are not the good guys riding to anyone’s rescue. They are everyone else’s idea of Hell. Every year, polls are taken around the world, asking what is the biggest threat to peace in the coming year. And every poll results in the same top answer: the United States.


The final full chapter deals with the unbelievable costs of war. Solomon does the usual thorough job of showing how the money spent on one Predator drone could itself finance some worthwhile program, either in the USA or in the victim nation. The trillion dollar cost of a war today is plainly unimaginable, which is precisely how administrations get away with financing them. He shows how far more veterans suffer the effects of American wars than are killed, and how much they cost the economy every year –almost as much as the military budget again. All of it avoidable and preventable. That money spent on the military is money all but totally wasted, compared to the money spent on job creation, healthcare and so on.


As I read, I also thought this is nothing new either. Starting wars has always been indefensible. The costs have always been astronomical. They have often bankrupted the nation, as happened to France for coming to the aid of the newly birthed USA, for example. The national debt soars higher with each one, all of it money that does not go to the benefit of the citizens. Solomon doesn’t even bother with how stopping forever wars would balance the budget, pay for Medicare For All as well as social security, and make the USA an idyllic place for Americans to live.


The book clearly has its place. Whole generations need to understand this. It has to be repeated continually, as new generations don’t get it.


But my God, Norman Solomon, how do you stop it?


David Wineberg


(War Made Invisible, Norman Solomon, June 2023)


If you liked this review, I invite you to read more in my book The Straight Dope. It’s an essay collection based on my first thousand reviews and what I learned. Right now it’s FREE for Prime members, otherwise — cheap! Reputed to be fascinating and a superfast read. And you already know it is well-written. https://www.amazon.com/Straight-Dope-...

[Randall Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

American Justice: This book shows the official 9/11 US death toll is now 2,996, while a Brown University Study showed more than 364,000 civilians died from US actions in its War on Terror in the first two decades post 9/11. Therefore, the US response to 9/11’s tragic 2,996 deaths in the end mathematically involved a retaliatory execution of 121.5 foreign civilians (who were every bit as innocent as the 9/11 victims) for every single dead 9/11 victim. Funny how I was taught in school only the Mafia or Nazis were that kind of vengeful.

Vietnam: What we call the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese call the American War. Four decades after the war ended, the Stimson Center survey found “unexploded bombs and cluster munitions (that) contaminate over 23,670 square miles.” In 1977, remember that Jimmy Carter said of the Vietnam War, “The destruction was mutual.” And that’s beloved Jimmy Carter! Sure, we invaded, napalmed and Agent Oranged their collective ass, but those paddy farmers were mean to us too!

Cool Post 9/11 US War facts: In 2022, our US military budget was “50% of all federal discretionary spending.” We US taxpayers have handed over $7.2 trillion (2021 dollars) since 9/11 to Pentagon contractors. Actual Washington Post headline: “Use of Military Contractors Shrouds True Costs of War.” The average CEO pay for top contractors is $17.7 million. Military failures for them are still financial successes. And those profits pay for lobbying: “weapons makers have spent $2.5 billion on lobbying over the past two decades”, military lobbying now employs more than one lobbyist for every member of Congress. The US spent $2.3 trillion on its Afghan War and average network coverage for each network amounted to only 24 minutes a year. When networks discuss a war’s cost in lives, that figure will never include the lives TAKEN by the US. Under the 1033 program, police departments that get free US military equipment have to use it within a year or it gets returned to the DOD. Perverse incentivization. Pages 122 to 125 are great on the Chelsea Manning story. Funny actual Forbes Magazine headline: “Hillary Clinton Never Met a War She Didn’t Want Others to Fight”.

Interesting Post/9-11 Soldier Facts: Since 9/11 in US wars, over 387,000 civilians have been killed and over 7,050 US soldiers (Costs of War Project). Since 9/11, “more than 450,000 US service members were diagnosed with a Traumatic Brain Injury from 2000 to 2021.” These vets are “more than twice as likely to commit suicide than other vets”. In 2019, DOD figures showed that women were committing 31% of all active-duty suicides. The Army had 35-50 cases per MONTH of domestic abuse per week before 9/11, but by 2005, the Army was getting 143 cases a WEEK. The Pentagon has admitted that US Special Forces are now deployed in 141 countries.

As Army general William Odum said on C-SPAN, “Terrorism is not an enemy. It cannot be defeated. It is a tactic. We are not going to win the war on terrorism.” Within hours of the US bombing Afghanistan after 9/11, a Gallup Poll showed that “90 percent of Americans approve of the United States taking such military action, just 5 percent are opposed, and another 5 percent are unsure.” Note that 90% of Americans were fine with giving the thumbs up to killing more innocent people than 9/11 ever did, blatantly violating International Law, and of course intentionally targeting people who had nothing at all to do with 9/11. That fact alone makes me picture Jesus rolling his eyes and saying, “Jesus Christ!”

In May 1996 Americans watched aghast while Madeleine Albright said on 60 Minutes “we think the price was worth it” about the price of 500,000 Iraqi children already dead because of US sanctions. The response to Albright’s clearly heartless response was swift from the US Senate – it then confirmed her as Secretary of State and get this – that vote was 99 to zero. If 90% of our fellow Americans said yes to war crimes in Afghanistan it should surprise no one if a female can sound like Goering when talking about Iraq on 60 Minutes, then everyone will make her US Secretary of State. Remember when Obama visited an air base in Afghanistan in 2010, “we face a determined enemy”? Note how the supposed ‘land of freedom and liberty’ invaded a country that did it no wrong and then its leader publicly called THEM an enemy. Priceless. Over at NBC, Tom Brokaw obsequiously called the shock and awe bombing “a tremendous light show” while fellow flunky Katie Couric called Operation Desert Storm “virtually flawless.” Only days before, 408 Iraqi civilians died when a missile struck a shelter – most of the people burned to death. So that’s Katie’s definition of “virtually flawless”. Funny how just like Nazi propaganda, our Media want us to identify with the bombers and never the bombed. A Marine told an embedded journalist, “You guys are making us stars back home.” When we bombed Baghdad which has five million people we were basically bombing an Atlanta, Philadelphia or Houston – had Baghdad only been filled with fellow Phillies, Braves and Astros fans gazing up at the approaching missiles, maybe the average American would have cared.

Oil Wars: Was the Iraq War was about oil? – General Abizaid (ex-head of Iraq’s Military Operations) said “Of course it’s about oil, we can’t really deny that.” Famed war hawk Chuck Hagel said, “People say we’re not fighting about oil. Of course, we are.” Even Alan Greenspan said, “the Iraq war is largely about oil.” And look at it historically: before the 2003 invasion, Iraq’s oil was closed to westerners and was nationalized. One decade later Iraq “is largely privatized and utterly dominated by western firms.”

When you hear that the Defense Department “carefully spares human lives”, know that “during this century, the Pentagon has killed far more civilians than al Qaeda and other terrorist groups have.” Add to that, the fact that Nick Turse reported in 2022 that “the number of terrorist groups threatening Americans and American interests has, according to the US State Department, more than doubled.” The War on Terrorism isn’t a bumbling Keystone Cops operation, this is an endlessly lucrative US Terrorism Producing Mobius Strip.

In March 2002, the NYT headlines were “Rocket Barrage Kills Civilians” – can anyone imagine the NYT using that same headline during the Iraq, Afghan, or Vietnam War? Norman calls it “unthinkable” and “taboo” to mention it. Funny how when the US “brazenly” flouts international law the Grey Lady stays silent, when Russia does the same thing, the NYT’s moral alarm returns. Shortly after the six-week Gulf War, a reporter asked Colin Powell about the 100,000 Iraqi civilians killed and Powell responded, “It’s really not a number I’m terribly interested in.” Perhaps if Russia had just bombed Iraq instead of the US, Colin would have appeared interested. The NYT in March 2003 referred to Black Hawk and Apache attack helicopter gunships flying “with such grace and panache.” Would the NYT also say the pilots in the Wikileaks Collateral Murder video also flew with “grace and panache”?

The War Powers Act requires congressional approval for war after 90 days, but folks like Obama reasoned it’s not really a war if no Americans died. US defense: “War is not war if Americans kill without being killed”. Imagine Jeffrey Dahmer or John Wayne Gacy trying that defense, “Hey, if I’m still alive, where’s the problem?” Obama spent a cool $1 billion of US taxpayer money bombing Libya; that will teach Libya the dangers of having free healthcare and education, and zero external debt! Hooray for today’s Libyan slave markets – as any US flag waver will tell you – Freedom isn’t free! In 2015, Iraq and Syria “were hit by 28,675 American bombs and missiles according to official data.” “By 2021, the US military had dropped bombs and fired missiles on Iraq for 26 of the last 30 years.”

Odious Thomas Friedman: In 1998, Thomas Friedman gave in his NYT column a call for “bombing Iraq, over and over again.” “In 1999, he returned to say we should “Blow up a different power station in Iraq every week” – what a lovely way to hurt children’s hospitals and refrigeration of medicine. Also in 1999, Friedman chillingly wrote “twelve days of surgical bombing was never going to turn Serbia around. Let’s see what twelve weeks of less than surgical bombing does. Give war a chance.” Later Friedman writes, “It should be lights out in Belgrade: Every power grid, water pipe, bridge, road and war-related factory has to be targeted.” Friedman also with a straight face said the Iraq War was, “one of the noblest things this country has ever attempted abroad.”

Cluster Bombs: Also known as CBU-87/B, they weigh 1,000 pounds each, and “hurl shards of shrapnel over a wide radius.” NATO used them by dropping them on a vegetable market in Serbia’s town of Nis – The San Francisco Chronicle then wrote of dismembered bodies strewn among vegetables in pools of blood. The Sunday Telegraph wrote “Used against human beings, cluster bombs are some of the most savage weapons of modern warfare.” Let’s listen to a Serbian doctor talk about NATO’s cluster bombs effects: “Neither I nor my colleagues have ever seen such horrific wounds as those caused by cluster bombs. The limbs are so crushed that the only remaining option is amputation.” And those cluster bombs are the gift that keeps on giving because little children pickup those exploded bomblets and – bam! Why aren’t cluster bombs banned if they are such sadistic tools? Well, they are banned in 110 countries, but oops… not in the US, the land of freedom.

Compassion US Style: American drones fire missiles that travel faster than the speed of sound, therefore civilians never hear their approaching missile. A Tech Sergeant admitted in a MIT Tech Review article, that drone operators can’t “differentiate between armed fighters and farmer, women or children.” Wait, is that that Putin? the Dalai Lama? Or Lisa Simpson? Who cares! Press execute! And it’s a medical fact that “drone pilots are often psychologically traumatized.” When the US military departed Afghanistan, it took the expression ‘parting shot’ literally, by killing seven children by drone when in August 2021. No one was charged and a Lieutenant General called it an honest mistake. Later, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recommended no discipline be taken. Neither of those military men appreciated drone whistleblower Daniel Hale’s obvious comment “to prevent terror on us we must stop the terror on them.” Note how journalist Ashleigh Banfield was banished from NBC for a speech she gave at Kansas State in 2003 where she lamented the media never covering where our bombs and bullets land, and on who. Luckily, after a decade or two, Mainstream Media tolerates it now, if sometimes you refer to US wars as mistakes or blunders, as long as you don’t mention the human or ecological toll. “The New Yorker had strongly supported the invasion during many months leading up to it.” In 2002, Foreign correspondent Reese Erlich wrote, “I didn’t meet a single foreign reporter in Iraq who disagreed with the notion that the US and Britain have the right to overthrow the Iraqi government by force.”

Biden, the Centrist’s Choice: In 2021, Biden boldly said, “I stand here today for the first time in twenty years, with the United States not at war. We’ve turned the page.” Who knew war isn’t war anymore? Brown University co-director of the Costs of War Project corrected Biden’s comment by saying, “The war continues in over eighty countries.” Google this - In 2022, President Biden gave a fist bump to Saudi Arabia’s dictator Mohammed bin Salman – You both dismembering Khashoggi and bombing Yemen with $$$ US weaponry? You the man, Salman!

Centrists Selling Out: Rachel Maddow “devoted hundreds of hours to Russiagate” which was much ado about nothing. After Nancy Pelosi shook Dick Cheney’s hand, she told reporters, “We were very honored by his being there.” Michelle Obama discussing Bush on TV in 2019: “Our values are the same. We disagree on policy, but we don’t disagree on humanity. We don’t disagree about love and compassion.” Life Magazine once said MLK sounded like Radio Hanoi. One Goal of the Mainstream Media: Make sure their audience thinks MLK’s 1967 Beyond Vietnam Speech never happened and only show snippets of his 1963 I Have a Dream Speech. Always keep them feeling good about officially co-opted dead leaders.

The New Centrist US as Humane Myth: American warfare has suddenly somehow become more humane. “Best estimates place the proportion of civilian deaths in recent decades at between 75 and 90 percent of all war deaths.” Stop and imagine our (US imposed) “terror imposed on daily life for years on end” in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, or Vietnam. In Iraq, childhood cancers and other malignancies rose “384.2 percent from 1990-2000”. So humane. And we left Iraqi 180,000 toxic rounds of depleted uranium from 2003. So humane. The essence of propaganda is Repetition. We are the best, the best. We are winning, winning. Zzzzzz…

“By 2022, estimates put the number of toxic-exposed veterans at 3.5 million.” If you were a veteran, to get compensation you and your lawyers had to prove “a direct connection” between your cancer and burn pit chemicals. In 2003, the Pentagon made coffin arrival ceremonies off limits at all bases. Photos of flag draped coffins aren’t great recruitment tools. Operation Iraqi Freedom did not lead to Iraqi freedom, but it still cost $806 billion. That war also increased terrorism, made even more terrorists, ensuring the lucrative War on Terrorism continues. FAIR’s funny headline after Mainstream Media quickly responded to Putin’s illegal Ukraine invasion: “Turns Out Corporate Media Can Oppose War – When the Official Enemy Is the Aggressor.” Then, fellow hypocrite Israel denounced Russia’s invasion - “Is this the same Israel that happily invaded Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt?” And it’s official: “Israel is presently committing apartheid according to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Israel’s B’Tselem.” Funny how a Ukrainian stockpiling Molotov Cocktails is only considered courageous, while a Palestinian doing the same thing for the exact same reason, is considered a terrorist.

Afghanistan: Biden pushed Afghanistan to “the brink of famine” when “the Biden administration froze $9.5 billion in Afghan assets that have devastated an already fragile economy.” Biden ordered half of that $9.5 billion to be paid out to 9/11 victims. As Mehdi Hasan wrote, “Afghans are starving, this is all ‘their’ money, & there was not a single Afghan aboard any of those 4 planes on 9/11”. Here the headline from the Intercept, “Biden’s Decision on Frozen Afghanistan Money is Tantamount to Mass Murder.” Yep. As the centrist New Yorker admitted in 2022, “Four months after the Biden administration withdrew US troops, more than 20 million Afghans are on the brink of famine.” Bernie Sanders and Chris Murphy were the only two US Senators to publicly express concern about this injustice. If you are upset about Taliban treatment of women, why also be upset that these same women now face starvation “as a result of US policy”? CNN’s chairman told his journalists they had to also mention 9/11, if they ever mentioned Afghans suffering or dying.

Alternatives to War: “The raison d’etre of war is to achieve goals with violence.” A Brown University study showed that investment in domestic public Keynesianism would outperform present military Keynesianism by creating in public education “nearly three times as many American jobs as defense spending, while health care creates about twice as many jobs.” Instead, our US military and jails and prisons are the most authoritarian institutions we have. After 9/11 The New York Times ran a photo and story on each American who was killed. Daniel Ellsberg mused, could you imagine if the NYT did the same for each victim of just the night of the “shock and awe” Baghdad bombing? Where is the slightest concern for the people we kill? That we murder? Are we citizens of an empire, a rogue state, that has determined it has the right to determine who governs OTHER countries? Oh, joy.

This was a great book. As you can plainly see, I learned a lot and you will too, about what our country is up to while most of Americans instead only consume the corporate approved story fed to us by the complaint Mainstream Media. Kudos to Mr. Solomon.

[Cav · Rating 3 out of 5]

"What happens at the other end of American weaponry has remained almost entirely a mystery, with only occasional brief glimpses before the curtain falls back into its usual place.
Meanwhile, the results at home fester in shadows. Overall, America has been conditioned to accept ongoing wars without ever really knowing what they’re doing to people we’ll never see..."

War Made Invisible is a sobering look into the ramifications of the bellicose foreign policy of The United States. The writing was well done, for the most part.

Author Norman Solomon is an American journalist, media critic, activist, and former U.S. congressional candidate. Solomon is a longtime associate of the media watch group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting.

Norman Solomon:


Solomon writes with an engaging style, and I found the book decently readable. It shouldn't have trouble holding the finicky reader's attention. The author drops the quote above in the book's intro.

The author also drops this quote early on:

"The militarism that propels nonstop U.S. warfare is systemic, but the topic of systemic militarism gets little public attention. Ballooning Pentagon budgets are sacrosanct. While there can be heated disagreement about how, where, and when the United States should engage in war, the prerogative of military intervention is scarcely questioned in the mass media.
Even when conventional wisdom ends up concluding that a war was unwise, the consequences for journalists who promoted it are essentially nil.
Reporters and pundits who enthusiastically supported the Iraq invasion were not impeded in their careers as a result. Many advanced professionally. In medialand, being pro-war means never having to say you’re sorry. Journalists who have gone with the war program are ill positioned to throw stones from their glass houses later on; the same holds true for media outlets.n Strong challenges to the status quo of U.S. militarism rarely get into mainstream media."

Personally speaking, I love the core ethos of America, but abhor their many foreign interventions, wars, and policy of "nation-building." I have read enough about war and conflict to know that it should be avoided if at all possible. War is hell... Unfortunately, many policymakers here in the West are all too eager to advocate for war when they have zero skin in the game.

My political inclinations began to form in the early 2000s, when I was in my early 20s. The primary reason that I identified with the political left was that the political right were imperial war hawks and "nation builders." Post 9/11 saw America invade Afghanistan first, and then Iraq in 2003 after that. I was (and still am) strongly opposed to interventionist wars in the Middle East. A good case could be made that these wars were the worst foreign policy blunders that the US ever made.

A case could also be made for a direct causal chain linking those wars with the destruction of aforementioned Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as Lybia and Syria after (with hundreds of thousands dead), on to the creation of ISIS, and then the 2015 migrant crises after. A crisis that resulted in millions of people fleeing their war-torn homes to make their way to Europe, and the resulting chaos - including horrific acts of terrorism - that inevitably results from importing millions of people from polar opposite regressive cultures into the free liberal democratic countries of the west...

Solomon writes this of the "War on Terror:"

"The “war on terror” became—for the White House, Pentagon, and Congress—a political license to kill and displace people on a large scale in at least eight countries, rarely seen, much less understood.11 Whatever the intent, the resulting carnage often included civilians.12 The dead and maimed had no names or faces that reached those who signed the orders and appropriated the funds. As years went by, it turned out that the point wasn’t to win the multicontinent war so much as to keep waging it, a means with no plausible end; the quest, in search of enemies to confront if not defeat, made stopping unthinkable. No wonder Americans couldn’t be heard wondering aloud when the “war on terror” would end. It wasn’t supposed to..."

Central to the thesis of the book is the concept that war is something that should affect other people. It is something to be done to and happen in other countries, and never at home. This has the effect of minimalizing and dehumanizing the very real victims of these questionable wars:

"In media frames, the routine exclusion of people harmed by U.S. warfare conveys that they don’t really matter much. Because we rarely see images of their suffering or hear their voices or encounter empathetic words about them, the implicit messaging comes through loud and clear. The silence ends up speaking at high volume: Those people hardly exist. They are others. They are not our concern. They don’t particularly matter, while our country is causing their misery."

I was disappointed that the book did not address the ultimate cause of all this warmongering. Instead, it is just an after-action report of sorts; heavy on ground-level stats. While the dead from war absolutely are important, a book covering the foreign policy of the United States should have also talked about the people responsible for these actions, and their motivations. A glaring omission, IMHO.

More of what is talked about here includes:
• The ~20 year invasion of Afghanistan
• The Iraq War; civilian deaths
• The disparate coverage of Ukrainian war casualties vs Iraqi casualties
• The United States led NATO’s bombing of Libya
• Usage of banned depleted Uranium in Iraq
• "Gulf War Syndrome;" The usage of cancer-causing "burn-pits."
• Crime and incarceration in the US; the militarization of law enforcement
• Privatization of the military. PMCs doing roles that the military traditionally filled

Unfortunately, the author couldn't help but add some low-resolution commentary in here about racism. There's some mindless nonsense about how American blacks are incarcerated at rates 5x higher than whites. The insinuation is that they are locked up for no reason, other than their race. No mention is made however, of the incidence of crime among American blacks, compared to whites. Making up ~6% of the population, American black men commit ~51% of all murders, 27% of all rapes, and 53% of all robberies. With some exceptions (obviously), and generally speaking- people in prison are there because they are criminals.

He also calls the Washington Capital protesters of Jan 6th "insurrectionists." LMAO. This guy needs to read a bit more history if he thinks that Jan 6th is what an actual insurrection looks like. In the most well-armed country in the world, none of these so-called "insurrectionists" thought to arm themselves? Words matter. I wonder if people (like this author) that use these weasely words like this do so out of ignorance, or actually know that they are being hyperbolic, and want to further their propagandist talking points. I'm not even sure which is worse...

******************

War Made Invisible was a decent book, minus the above criticisms. I would still recommend it to anyone interested.
3 stars.

[Diogenes Grief · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essentially this is a damning condemnation of the politicization of grief, that horrible human dichotomy of “us” versus “them” to which the history of the United States is bathed in centuries of blood. It’s also a crucification of the military-industrial-congressional (MIC) complex that makes warmongering our most lucrative export, one so obviously fueled by systemic racism and nonchalant xenophobia, and reinforced wholeheartedly by corporate media (Solomon has 54 pages of endnotes for you to attempt to pick apart his arguments, but you’ll fail).

After showing how news coverage of Vietnam did NOT sway public opinion, dispelling another long-held myth, Solomon goes on to say:

”Yet news reporting certainly guides outlooks. And it mixes with realms of punditry, politics, culture, and entertainment to sustain the continuity of a warfare state. The huge gaps between what actually happens to people in war zones and what we get from the mainline American media are long-standing. Those gaps numb the public and usually protect the political establishment from facing an antiwar upsurge at home. Well-intentioned journalists are confined in a career milieu that filters out the essence of war” (p. 26, Libby).

Dissecting the “war on terror” has been fully accomplished, much more quickly and easily than journalists and scholars did for the “Vietnam Conflict”, but it’s been a terribly painful process, especially for those of us who were swayed by the propaganda and who volunteered to actively participate in it. We can now clearly see, directly after 9/11, how every major news outlet was masquerading nationalism as journalism and politicizing grief for “us” while screaming for war against a chronically dehumanized “them”, and how they all now seem to look back on the “war on terror” as a colossal mistake, the most egregious foreign policy debacle in U.S. history (but at least there was no mandatory draft, right?). I wish every veteran, never mind the entire citizenry, would read The Pentagon Papers as much as The Afghanistan Papers. Our warmongering days would end and we could rein-in the corruption of bloodthirsty capitalism for the betterment of global humanity. (Solomon has a nice conversation with Daniel Ellsberg starting on p. 193 in the Libby-app version, and NPR had a very nice obituary for the guy who gave us the Pentagon Papers: https://www.npr.org/2023/06/16/116215...).

The lies were given through smirks and smiles. The euphemisms were thick. The profits were astronomical for the military-industrial-congressional complex. George Dubya, Dick “Darth Vader” Cheney, Donnie F-ing Rumsfeld, all the elected officials on “both sides of the aisle” wedded to the MIC, the CEOs of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, the massive military contracting sector that sprung up overnight to gorge themselves at the public coffers, and everyone directly invested in such industries got fat off the pain, misery, death, and destruction of brown-skinned, Mecca-bowing others. They should all be in prison cells at The Hague, sentenced for crimes against humanity by the U.N.’s International Court of Justice, but we know how that goes.

Solomon squarely places blame on the mass media, including humanistic, liberal strongholds like NPR and my beloved The New Yorker.

”The essence of propaganda is repetition. The frequencies of certain assumptions blend into a kind of white noise, with little chance of contrary sounds to be heard or considered. In the United States, the dominant media discourse and standard political rhetoric about the country’s military role in the world are like that” (p. 22). The drum-banging for the “war on terror” was precisely like this. “When a limited range of information and worldviews is repeated endlessly, that’s what dominate the media echo chambers. Meanwhile, the power of omissions—what’s hardly ever mentioned—is huge. Protracted silences can be extremely influential” (p. 23). Those silences were Iraqis, Afghans, Kurds, and so many others who played no hand in any Middle Eastern regime, but bore the brunt of the strife we wrought upon their communities. Those silences were journalists asking hard questions to empty answers, and Veterans like me returning from such war zones with harsh criticisms of our policies and intentions.

Solomon was interviewed by The Intercept (the progressive website whom Daniel Hale leaked the data of Obama’s catastrophic drone strike campaign to in 2015, and the subsequent book written by Jeremy Scahill as The Assassination Complex in 2016, as well as the leaks from Reality Winner, who went to prison for showing how Russia was interfering in our election processes) for their podcast Deconstructed (https://theintercept.com/2023/08/11/d...), and Solomon tells how so many “liberal outlets” did not want to promote this book by interviewing him, the guilt overwhelming, apparently. (You’d think 20 years of painful reflection would hopefully nurture introspection and self-criticism, some humility and a desire for forgiveness, but I guess not. I cannot express my disappointment to hear this.) “The capacity of large media institutions to evade any accountability for the carnage and anguish they helped to cause is akin to throwing unpleasant truths down a memory hole and turning out the lights” (p. 84).

Such is the digital era of Homo sapiens stupidicus, because of course we’re all to blame too, and we have to accept that blame for hundreds of millions of civilian casualties across the Middle East and North Africa. We learned nothing from Vietnam. Failure to do so again, which some believe is inevitable (https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united...), dooms us to repetition and all the disastrous repercussions that follow. We were lied to, but in this day and age, “post-truth” with an unregulated internet plagued by nefarious actors and media outlets spewing disinformation wildly, we face existential terrors based on pathological liars trying to seize power by all means available. We can’t fix the past, but he can be better armed for tomorrow.

I am an Iraq veteran, having served there in 2004 when IEDs starting sprouting up all over the country, and snipers of every stripe were sprinkled throughout with rifles, grenades, Molotov cocktails, and even knives on gridlocked Baghdad streets. We were driving around in soft Humvees and shot-up Toyota 4Runners with the ignition wires exposed. We suspected there were Iranians, even some Chechens, mixed into the local populations. The Coalition Provisional Authority had made their disastrous edicts in 2004, and the spiraling chaos began. It was precisely what Osama bin Laden dreamt of, and he got exactly what he wanted: a long, protracted, unwinnable war waged by the West, and a raging tide of jihad that would sweep through the Muslim world. If you’d like me to describe in graphic detail what bullets and shrapnel do to human beings, I’ll provide an eyewitness account for you, and hope it can force you to unload the contents of your stomachs in horror. But could such things work with a society desensitized by decades of Hollywood and video games, with a society sociopathic in its treatment to others very different from our personal little tribes? After Uvalde, some asked to show the pictures of dead kids piled on top of one another, bullet-ridden and blood-soaked, hoping to catalyze lightning-quick movements for greater gun-control laws. Would it work?

It was clear to me then, in 2004, that NOBODY at the Pentagon or the White House had taken a single class on Middle-Eastern Studies. We saw the tribalistic chain-of-command amongst family groups and sheiks, we heard the tensions rising between the dethroned Sunnis and the revenge-seeking Shias, we worked with the Kurds and understood their “us against all others” mentality after centuries of being besieged, we felt the rippling of animosities boiling over. Then Abu Musab al-Zarqawi blew up the Karbala mosque and all hell broke loose. In our first two months, my small Army Reserve company of 67 or so soldiers lost a good 8 or 9 to injuries. Thankfully, no one was killed, but the bodies of Iraqis were piling up in heaps, broken and blasted: seniors, women, too many children, and no one gave a damn then. At the 20-year anniversary of the illegal and immoral invasion, Americans still don’t (https://theintercept.com/2023/03/18/i...). This is Solomon’s whole point.

It’s fairly surmised that the rise of demagogic populism was fueled, in large part, by 20 years of propaganda, obfuscations, and bald-faced lies from the White House, the Capitol, and the mass-media outlets. Toss in poorly triaged natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the flagrant pervasiveness of systemic racism woven into the fabric of society, our bloated inequality, and support for corporate welfare over public welfare time after time (Occupy Wall Street!), and we get what we didn’t deserve, thanks to those with all the power leading us blindly down this road, greed their sole guide.

Solomon highlights, with the help of astute watchdog organizations, the death tolls wrought upon the people in the wars we manufacture, and how the mass media failed to highlight such reprehensible destruction all done in the name of Christian morality. Some 3,000,000 Vietnamese are projected to be the victims of nine years of American intervention there. According to Brown University’s Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs, the “war on terror” slaughtered some 4,500,000 human beings across 85 countries, displaced another 38 million, and consumed some $8 trillion in money that could have gone directly to healthcare, education, and infrastructure (https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/f...). But of course numbers don’t wrench the heart or the mind. Images barely do anymore either, people being anesthetized by chronic Pavlovian screen addiction, further exacerbating our sociopathy, or at the very least hardening our empathy to only those we believe to care about in renewed tribalism. Classrooms full of dead kids, ERs overflowing with plague victims, all the homeless Americans huddled in makeshift camps. Not enough people CARE. Christian hypocrisy entrenched.

Now, if you will, compare the media dynamics covering the “war on terror” (or the war in Syria, or the Saudi slaughter of Yemenis) with how they cover Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. White people; white people with paintings of white Jesus on their walls. THESE PEOPLE matter. This is also one of Solomon’s illustrative fulcrums.

“What began on March 20, 2003, in Iraq and on February 24, 2022, in Ukraine set off horrendous fear, anguish, pain, and death in those countries. No real difference in human terms. The decisions from the White House and the Kremlin, accompanied by profusely deceptive rhetoric, were of comparable moral decency: none. The people living in the two invaded countries endured similar experiences. But in the United States, the responses were worlds apart” (p. 190). It’s painfully interesting, deplorably fascinating, how such dynamics play out. Will we ever evolve beyond our selfish, simplistic thinking? Can we move beyond barbarous warmongering and profiteering off the misery of others? I seriously doubt it.

I don’t know if Solomon would like the label of “peacenik”, but that’s the vibe I get. A humanist certainly. Wholly noble, naturally. We realists have to do our part railing against the “status quo”, because such things require systemic transformations, or nothing will ever change. Progressivism really is the only way to break these cycles of vampiric greed, wanton warmongering, and dolorous inequality. Let’s strip the $800,000,000,000 from the DOD budget and use that gargantuan sum of money to rebuild our nation from the ground up: education, healthcare, and infrastructure. Clearly the military-industrial-congressional complex doesn’t know how to use its endowment well, and we can do better with such vast sums.

Playlist:
Terrorizer’s “Enslaved By Propaganda” from 1989 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS7oe...)
Havok’s “Intention to Deceive” from 2017 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GT9m...)
Living Wreckage’s “The Voices Lied” from 2022 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYAVN...)
Anti-Flag’s “Die for the Government” from 1996 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL0nh...)
Machine Head’s “A Farewell to Arms” from 2007 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzvNz...)

For those living in US counties and states turning backwards into puritanical idiocracies, The Banned Book Club is here to toss you an app-lifeline (https://thepalaceproject.org/banned-b...). Spread the word.

Thank you, Public Library System, for having this title available. #FReadomFighters


Addendum 01 OCT 2023:
The Intercept shared this plan, approved by the Orange Gasbag, to create a national memorial to the Global War of Terror (GWOT) (https://theintercept.com/2023/09/30/g...). They are asking for public opinion, but only until 17 OCT 2023. Do what you want with this, but I wanted to share because it does have an “additional comments” at the end. Here’s my two cents that I'm sure no one at the foundation will read:

“As an OIF Veteran who served in 2004, the son of a Vietnam Vet, and someone well-read on the subject of the GWOT (including "The Afghanistan Papers"), I feel it will be an abomination to the disinformation presented to the American people, the negligence of "the media" who beat the war-drums, the erasure of the intelligence presented to the White House before the 9/11 attacks, the illegal invasion of sovereign nations that went against International Humanitarian Law, and the misery and death wrought upon tens of millions of non-Christian, non-Caucasian human beings, where only some 0.22 per cent of the fatalities were Americans (https://theintercept.com/2023/09/30/g...). This would be a shameful memorial white-washing history for the sake of blind and ignorant nationalism. I suggest everyone in this foundation read Norman Solomon's "War Made Invisible" (https://thenewpress.com/books/war-mad...), then rethink your reasons for this memorial and its historical intentions.”

[Angela Juline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guessed what most of Solomon would argue - but I was completely awakened to the influence of the media - I'm still processing it. And I didn't know to what degree America contracts out "forces" - those numbers often do not get reported as casualties because the government does not collect that data - so we don't see the true cost in lives (and for those who are injured, they also do not get the benefit of extended health care through the VA)

[Kara Aragon · Rating 5 out of 5]

War is shit and for the US it is always about power and money. The way Western media portrays their participation in war is a lie. It's all a game of setting the scene, showing what they want to show, not what they don't and framing it to look like they are the good guys just doing work to keep the world a safe / better place when in all actuality those who run the US are evil and are directly responsible for much of the suffering around the world.

In the current times, it is easy to see that western media serves us straight propaganda. What Isreal and the US are doing in Gaza right now and the way they TRY to portray it vs what we actually see happening and the facts that we are aware of thanks to social media and journalists risking their lives to share the truth. What we have seen from this current situation is the same shit that happened with Iraq & that has been going on for the last century in so many other "wars".

Here is an exact headline I screenshot recently; "The hostages to be freed are women and children and the Palestinian prisoners are also women and people aged 18 and younger, both sides have confirmed". And no that's not from The Onion. That is a real headline from The Guardian. It's also not a rarity.

Even if you can demonstrate that much of the propaganda we're fed are lies, it is unfortunately NOT easy to get more people to give a damn. The desire to feel superior is strong in a lot of people and whether it's through racism, classism or whatever - many people will turn a blind eye if it keeps them higher with others beneath them. Or even just so they sleep a little better at night convincing themselves shit isn't so bad. I mean if you don't look then you don't know for sure, right (*eyeroll*)

Please stop voting for the nincompoops that run the US. The Republicans and the Democrats - they're all the same. That's blatently obviously if you just look at the track records. We have the power to demand change. We don't have to be at war constantly. So many innocent lives do not need to be lost. We can stop military spending and it can go towards healthcare, helping to end starvation, homelessness & so many other important needs. But in order to do that we need to be willing to make some major changes.

[Mechelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally finished this. It was so good, but also so deeply distressing that I needed to take a break and come back. I’ve always prided myself on being aware of current affairs - reading newspapers from around the world, listening to other voices, supporting independent journalists - and even I was surprised at the level of depravity we have come to as a nation. His assertion that the war has become invisible is apt. 1% of the population fights, and few outside really know what’s happening on the ground (or in the air).

For centuries, wars were fought and ended because of the high casualties in both sides on the ground, but now we have weapons of war that requires no human risk — at least on one side. But what happens when we assume no risk, only victory? We get a 20 year War that saw 100 to 1 ratio of casualties of American servicemen to Afghani civilians - not combatants, civilians.

This is the new age of east, where we can have a war that lasts forever since there’s no assumed risk. They even call it “humane” since it’s not Americans dying. The American military brass has lost its soul. This book and the stories within will haunt me for a long time to come.

Excellent reporting. Five stars.

[Dave Lindorff]

Usually when I read a interesting book I’m reviewing, being a journalist, I find myself inspired to write an article that delves further into some aspect that the book brushed on. But in the case of Norman Solomon’s infuriating, well-documented and much needed book "War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine," I’m stymied: He’s covered it all in depth and in a very readable and not imposingly lengthy volume.

Solomon does a masterful job of explaining how since the American war on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the. 1960s and early ‘70s, which led to massive protest at home and even to insurrection among the troops doing the fighting, a bi-partisan strategy has been developed and refined of insulating the American public from the realities of what has become a trillion-dollar-a-year policy of permanent war.

By ending conscription, so that the dirty work of asserting global dominance and of slaughtering large numbers of civilians and destroying whole countries is done by young Americans who have enlisted in the various services — a professional army whose soldiers are much less inclined to complain about what they are ordered to do. Protest is minimized too. And increasingly that war fighting, as Solomon explains, is conducted by air, either using piloted planes or cruise missiles. Increasingly it is drones being used, which do the killing hundreds or thousands of miles away from those running therm. The Starbucks and Coke-swilling joy-stick jockeys work in air-conditioned comfort on US military bases in places like Burkina Faso, Germany, Italy, Turkey and the town next to mine, Horsham, PA.. (Some of those killer drone pilots have become whistleblowers, but their stories get short shrift or aren’t reported by American news organizations.)

I imagine many Americans walking through a bookstore, or scanning new titles on Amazon’s book site, running across one that says it’s about how the US makes its wars invisible will find themselves asking, “What wars?”

And that’s what the goal is of Washington’s leaders of both parties: for Americans to forget that their country is at war almost everywhere around the globe.

This was basically, he writes, the object of President Biden’s ludicrous assertion early in his presidency in a 2021 address at the United Nations after the last US troops had been pulled out of the 20-year war on Afghanistan, when he said, “I stand here today for the first time in twenty years, with the United States not a war. We’ve turned the page.”

As Solomon comments dryly: “Actually the ‘turned' page was bound into a continuing volume of war. Biden’s claim was mendacious on a global sale. In September, the same month as his pronouncement at the UN, a new report from the Costs of War Project at Brown University showed that the US “war on terror” launched two decades earlier was still underway on several continents” — indeed in some 80 countries!

Furthermore, as Solomon writes, in the week that the last remaining US troops flew out of Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, Biden, who was getting hammered by Republicans and some Democrats for “abandoning” the people of Afghanistan, assured America not to worry, because the US would continue to “exercise its "over the horizon’"muscle in that country. In a country where 75 percent of those killed by US bombs and rockets and toops have been non-combatants, he was saying to Americans, “Don’t worry, we’ll keep killing Afghans.” (But America is at peace.)

“Over the horizon muscle” of course was a term or art for the use of drones, or even piloted bombers or cruise missiles. Of course, that would not be “war” in the new US construct, because no Americans would be dying. Just Afghanis. As Solomon notes, Our Nobel Peace Laureate Barack Obama claimed he didn’t need to seek Congressional approval for his war ousting the government of Libya because it was just American planes attacking the country and no American troops were dying, so it ‘wasn’t a war.”

Solomon spends a good deal of time excoriating the corporate media, which he explains plays a crucial role in hiding America’s wars and the damage they do both to the people of other countries that the US military attacks and to the US men and women who pilot the drones and make the decisions to fire the Hellfire missiles.

Indeed, “War Made Invisible,” even as it so thoroughly exposes the machinations of the US military, the White House and the State Department to hide the country’s wars and interventions, and even as he provides details of the horrible war crimes and genocidal killing that the US has been perpetrating around the globe, this book is also a veritable twin of that classic Ed Herman and Noam Chomsky media analysis work "Manufacturing Consent," but focused entirely upon the way the mainstream corporate media work hand-in-glove with the national security state and Pentagon to hide the costs and the bloody reality of America’s 21st- Century militarism and endless war policy.

In painful detail, he documents how major news organizations and their top journalists and talking heads avoid asking the hard questions when civilians are slaughtered by US bombs, and base most of their reports on US wars and counter-insurgencies on the unchallenged press releases from the Pentagon and the State Department.

We do see the horrors of war on our TV screens to be sure, but what we see is the horrors visited on the white people of Ukraine by America’s “evil-doer” du jour, Vladimir Putin. It’s the kind of reporting the US media should have done when those same horrors, though on an even larger scale, were being visited on Afghanistan and Iraq by the US troops. We didn’t see those things though in our homes, or even read about them. In fact Solomon tells how a rising star at NBC news was removed from the air by senior management for mentioning this travesty of censorship at a college talk. Senior corporate management let it be known when she came back to work that whenever some embarrassing killing was caused in those wars by US soldiers, the reporter was to mention the dead in the US from the 9-11 attacks (for balance).

This is not a book for reading to your young kids at bedtime, but it is a book to hand to your teenage son if he ever talks about wanting to be a helicopter pilot for the Army, to join the Marines, or to fly an F-35. It’s a good book to buy for relatives and friends who don’t know the US is a nation at war.

And it’s a book we all should read cover-to-cover and then talk about when we’re done.

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A limited hangout for American "liberals". War Made Invisible, smh - irony is dead! 3 stars is generous, imo.

[Bonni McKeown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bravely, the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago on-line book reading group chose Norman Solomon’s War Made Invisible for its selection for April 2025. Few people from fewer churches signed up. Those of us who did were sickened by what we read--that U.S. military adventures around the world have not stopped in the 21st century—the main era of focus by author Norman Solomon.

The book group’s low attendance is telling. Most Americans don’t want to scrutinize our own warmakings, preferring to debate culture wars and political parties. Meanwhile, the war machine grinds on, through administrations Democrat and Republican, destroying millions of people’s lives and lands abroad and twisting countless minds at home. Bleeding our treasury while so many Americans have inadequate housing and medical care.

Solomon opens by castigating the major media, including the New York Times, Washington Post and TV news stations, for urging “war on terrorism” in the wake of 9/11 in 2001. He quotes the common sense of retired US Army General William Odom, appearing on C-Span: “Terrorism Is not an enemy. It cannot be defeated. It is a tactic.”

Chapter by chapter, Solomon digs into the fallacies framing the propaganda that invisibly occupies our minds: that America and allies are practicing “humane” warfare and not trying to hurt civilians; that some lives are worth more than others. Solomon aptly points out that blockades are violent in that they starve people and kill local economies. The chapter on racism, “The Color of War,” shows how the media rushed to cover the sufferings of Europeans in the Ukraine war, but could not tune into the families torn apart in Gaza, Yemen, Sudan, or the Congo. He aptly recalls how U.S. soldiers were encouraged to think of Vietnamese as “gooks,” and Iraquis and Afghanis as “towel heads.”

What Solomon doesn’t do is hold specific high-ranked officials accountable for the USA’s nonsensical, suicidal pursuit of war. He names the presidents and some of the cabinet members who ordered the acts of war, but he doesn’t dig into the hidden forces behind it. Why do Black congress members and outright progressives like Bernie Sanders contnue to vote for most war budgets while social services in their districts suffer? Do Latine Americans feel conflicted when the US decides to invade the countries of their ancestors? Since the JFK assassination, presidents have been threatened and pressured by the war machine. Who is doing this pressuring and why?

Solomon does very little to address this: how can ordinary citizens stick a monkey wrench into this terrible machine? We already know what happens when you do. Solomon points out the price paid by Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated exactly a year after giving his “Beyond Vietnam” speech. Solomon also points out the sacrifices made by Chelsea Manning, imprisoned for exposing U.S. military’s torturing of Iraqis labeled as terrorists. (He curiously does not mention the long detentions of Julian Assange, the Wikkileaks publisher of Manning’s revelations, finally released in 2024.)
For a glimpse at the sick, power-hungry minds and corruption behind the scenes, readers will need to consult independent writers and podcasters such as Whitney Webb, who traces the links between U.S. military intelligence, the Israeli intelligence, and organized crime; Glenn Greenwald, First Amendment lawyer and co-founding editor of Intercept; Lee Camp, a Jewish anti-Zionist, antiwar comedian; Aaron Mate, covering international issues for The Nation and Grayzone.

Overall--thanks to Norman Solomon for an easy-to-read, fact-packed and footnoted introduction to a very difficult subject.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher The New Press for this look at America and how the forever war is the new normal for American foreign policy, the complacency or many and how this is effecting our society.

America has always had a problem with the truth, and its own history. This has always helped those in power because nothing unites a people than the other, the different and what one group would considered the not like me. So America has a war on terror, and goes to war with a country that has nothing to do with the attack that has lead to the war on terror. This can be sold to the American people as revenge, getting back at those that made us feel weak. And the fact that the country, Iraq has oil, and there is a lot of money involved, well that is icing on the cake. Money flows in defense spending bills, each president not wanting to look weak to the electorate and add more money, and more money. And the forever war rolls on. Normon Solomon, journalist, advocate and media critic looks at this growth in the American war budget in his book War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, and the lives that it has cost both in distant countries and hear at home.

Solomon begins the book with all the many voices almost clamoring for war. And no group of people clambered for war more than those who appeared on America's Op-Ed pages. That is what strikes the reader so early, even those of us who remember Desert Storm, how American media, the fourth estate that is supposed to keep an eye on the hen house, actively campaigned and rode along with the foxes talking about how great the bombs were falling, the helicopters were flying, and all the bad guys that were dying. There were a few reports about civilian deaths, but most of this was ignored, or considered as part of cost of war. Looking at moderns eyes what was part of the price of war in Iraq, is held to a different standard during the current Ukraine War, as Russia uses many of the same tactics, and even the same equipment, as in cluster bombs that America used in Afghanistan, and Iraq. Solomon looks at all this, and the many actions that are taking place in Africa, missions that are sill considered classified, and really are not known to the American public.

This is a rough read, but a necessary one. As citizens, we allow to many things to be done in our name, allow too much money to go to cluster bombs and defense contractors, while children live without healthcare, decent water or the ability to not be afraid going to school. All this control is helped by the media who seems to look at ratings more than the public good. Solomon is a very good writer, able to cut through the fog of war, and as to quote Churchill the bodyguard of lies, that is an establishment who likes the control, the power and the money. Solomon uses their own words an quotes to lay bare the truth, and is able to follow these quotes up with facts and figures. Also, Solomon gives voice to those civilians who have been damaged by war. Drone pilots who dropped bombs, but know not where, or who talk about looking at the world while squinting through a straw, as being a drone pilot removes one from see the damage. Civilians who will be maimed for life, by clean safe killing from above. A very powerful read, and one that is very important especially in these times.

Recommended for those who want an idea how the history of this era will be told. Also for those who want change in this country, it helps to see what one is up against. A very neccessary book, one that is not fun reading, but one that makes a person want to work for change.

[Roxane Assaf-Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

In "War Made Invisible," Norman Solomon sheds light, not only on the brutal facts of viciously antiseptic warfare, but also on the accomplishments and sacrifices of others whose journalistic integrity or ethical courage compelled them to do the unpopular. In one case, he quotes from the handwritten letter sent by drone whistleblower Daniel Hale to the judge who will sentence him. Were it not for “War Made Invisible,” fewer people would ever know of this priceless document.

In that vein, he bears painful witness to the career descent of media star Ashleigh Banfield who dared question the cost of war when trumpets were blaring to the glory of military ‘victory’ in Iraq. By contrast, he issues a sharply reasoned indictment of the venerable New Yorker with an unrelenting examination of its wistful look-back on a decade of ruin in Iraq, regarding its own reportage as one would a family scrapbook. Yet he takes no wholesale aim. Anand Gopal, for example, receives high praise for his work in that publication, and the book cites from it without reserve.

As a firsthand witness, Solomon stops to take notice of trees missing from the Afghan landscape. “The streets of Kabul were blowing with harsh dust, a harvest of war.” He recounts the experience of a seven-year-old refugee girl he met. It makes one shudder as Solomon considers that her experience of the U.S. is waking up each day with only one of her arms, meanwhile understanding the futility of appealing to her own government. Read how Muslim Afghans collect the dismembered remains of flesh after a U.S. drone attack, cursing this country as they go.

Solomon calls racism on double-standard reporting. He criticizes news coverage of Russia and Ukraine, not only from the standpoint that Russia gets called out for what the U.S. has been doing with impunity, but also in terms of how much the U.S. press cares about white victims of war-related violence vs. brown or black people, Arabs, Africans or Latin Americans. Here on display is the unholy marriage of international racism and the domestic militarization of our police.

It all comes down to the utility of our approach: For the United States, the latest weapons technologies are keenly valuable for off-loading moral culpability from public agendas with little muss, less fuss.

War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine

[Henry Norr · Rating 5 out of 5]

War Made Invisible is an impassioned plea to readers to recall something we’ve all heard but too often disregard: war is hell. For generations most Americans, including most media outlets, have rallied ‘round the flag whenever the United States government engages in war, celebrating our soldiers and their commanders, paying little attention to the plight of our targets – including innocent civilian victims – and assuming that this nation is somehow entitled to invade or bomb wherever it chooses, regardless of other nations’ sovereignty or international law.

But since Vietnam and especially since the start of the “war on terror” the government has been waging since 9/11, these tendencies have been especially pronounced, author Norman Solomon argues. One key reason, he observes, is that the military, taking advantage of new technologies, has learned to rely increasingly on air war, particularly supposedly precision-guided missiles and drones, thus minimizing the need for U.S. “boots on the ground.”

Government officials claim that these weapons are used exclusively against enemy leaders and facilities and that reports of civilian casualties are outright fabrications or, when that argument can’t be sustained, that they are the result of rare and unfortunate accidents. Solomon, however, presents persuasive evidence that claims for the accuracy of high-tech weaponry are highly exaggerated; in fact, he argues, “best estimates place the proportion of civilian deaths in recent decades at between 75 and 90 percent of all war deaths.” These victims rarely appear on American TV screens, but Solomon tells some of their stories, based on his multiple visits to Iraq, Afghanistan, and other U.S. targets.

A longtime media critic, Solomon is particularly scathing on the role of the media, including “liberal” outlets such as the New York Times, MSNBC, and CNN, in promoting U.S. wars, suppressing or marginalizing anti-war voices, and hiding the true costs of constant conflict, in civilian lives, in dollars badly needed for constructive uses, and on the mental health of many Americans who take part.

To this reader the structure of the book wasn’t always clear: the same issues seemed to be covered in multiple locations, and the content of chapters didn’t always match their titles. But these are minor complaints. On the whole, I can only wish that War Made Invisible will attract a wide audience - among our political leaders, among media personalities, and above all among the public who have so regularly been duped into supporting needless wars.

[Rhuff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Norman Solomon, author of "War Made Easy," follows up with this more general survey of early 21st century warfare; how its proponents hide the after-effects of their devastation, out of sight and mind, without ever having to say they're sorry. In this fairly short book, Solomon constructs and deconstructs the mythology of empire as "defense."

Case in point is the revered liberal humanitarian NYT columnist, Thomas Friedman, who gloated on returning Serbia to the 14th century, then glorified the Iraq war "as one of the noblest thing this country has ever attempted to do abroad." (p. 81.) Once the dust has settled and blood dried, when the effect is not what the carnage so courageously promised, only then is it time to say we made a mistake and then rush off to the next one, leaving devastated peoples and nations behind to fester in the feces. He is, however, but a personification for a state and media propaganda system that has gone unchecked since the original Committee on Public Information in WW I.

So we have hand-wringing over the plight of Ukrainian refugees, with virtually no on-ground war reportage but plenty of human-interest cameos of blonde, mid-thirties women (usually English-speaking) and the plight of her children. Such human interest received no play during US missions in Iraq or Afghanistan, or in human displacement catastrophes in Africa and Yemen. The old division between worthy victims (those produced by official enemies) and unworthy (caused by the US and allies) remains as strong as ever, earmarked by outright racism (except, strangely, in the millions of German expellees from Communist east Europe after WW II.)

Yet the ongoing crisis in Gaza has finally ripped the mask off this game, as the victims of US complicity and perpetration of massive suffering, crimes of war and against humanity, even genocide, have burst undeniably in the world's face. So much so that even a flat-footed, red-faced warmonger like Joe Biden, a past-master at sweeping inconvenient truths under the White House carpet, has to say *something,* if only to keep election-year credibility. The irony here is that the US was funneling arms for Saudi Arabia's war on Yemen, as Solomon notes, ignoring its Gaza-like catastrophe while still fanning its flames during the Gaza debacle.

We thought they'd learned their lesson in Vietnam; we hope they'll get it this time, in Gaza. But no - they never learn, because they keep lying to themselves before they can convincingly lie to you.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Russia : Ukraine :: United States : Afghanistan (and Iraq). This is the point that Solomon makes over and over and over in various forms, looking at varying facets of the same simple refrain. Not a long book at just 240 pages, 28% of which (at least in ARC form) was documentation - which is on the higher end of "normal" in my experience - a truly in-depth analysis, this book is not. But the point it makes, and the bias it openly stakes, is in stark and balancing contrast to the dominant narrative through US media - which is its very point.

Basically, Solomon's entire point comes down to the fact that in focusing on cruise missile bombing - not even as many actual bomber planes, certainly relative to prior generations of American war as recently as Vietnam - and, more recently and perhaps even more ubiquitously, drone bombings, the US Department of Defense has shifted the conversation about war away from the dangers faced by soldiers on the ground. Complicit with this is an American media that even when showing atrocities, also "reminds" people of the tragedy of 9/11 - without ever noting that the US DoD commits a 9/11 seemingly every few days, and the constant terror of hearing a drone hover around can be even worse, psychologically. (This is particularly clear in one passage in particular where he discusses speaking directly with Afghan citizens in the southern provinces, away from US media coverage.) A generation later, with Russia invading Ukraine on just as flimsy a pretext, suddenly the American media is hyping up every remotely-connected-to-Russia instance of civilian suffering in the affected region... because suddenly, the invader is not the US itself, but an enemy of the US.

Solomon even takes square aim at Samuel Moyn's September 2021 book Humane, where Moyn posits that the US use of drones has made modern warfare "more humane", with some valid points here. (Though to be clear, I also believe Moyn has some valid points from his side as well, and stated so in my review of that book.)

I made it a point to read this book on Medal of Honor day, and it is a truly fascinating - and needed, for Americans - book any day of the year. It brings a refreshing balance to overall US discourse about war and its repercussions, it certainly can open eyes that are willing to be opened, and it will strengthen the views of those who are already "in the know" of this subject. Very much recommended.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

The post 9/11 wars have cost the US taxpayer at least $7.2 Trillion. Just imagine a world in which that much money had been spent on our infrastructure, our environment, our children, on poverty and homelessness. The American people have no idea how much they pay for war. In the last two decades we have spent over $350 Billion PER YEAR on illegal foreign wars. During that time the average CEO of a military contractor earned $17.7 Million per year. There have been US Special Forces commandos in 141 different countries, in just the last decade. As of 2021 the US is engaged in warfare in 81 of them. Why? And therein seems to lie the point. These wars do not make the US more secure. In the last paragraph Solomon writes: “In its third decade of continuous war, in the name of fighting terror, propelled by military might and mythology about extraordinary virtues, the United States has become its own enemy.” And, “Meanwhile, the USA’s unrelenting global search for enemies has made them more numerous and intractable.”
The why is obvious but not admitted. Profit. We do this so that those CEOs can make that much, so that share holders can earn record profits. That these profits come from killing and terrorizing innocent civilians is not their concern. It ought to be ours. The how is the more complicated question, but the media are obviously a huge part of the problem. They do not tell us. When people know about the costs of war they resist them. This is why there are no photos of flag draped coffins at Dover Air Force Base any longer. The media is not censored, it simply fails to inform. This is a disturbing fact we must confront.
The American people really are not war-hawks looking to destroy the world. Our government lies to us and our press refuses to do its job, of speaking truth to power, asking the hard questions, facing complicated facts. If we know we resist. So it is vital to those who profit from war that the American public not know what is done in its name, with its money, with their lives. Norman Solomon has done the nation a great service by collecting this information to try to make war a little more visible.

[Maxine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since 9/11 and the beginning of the War on Terror, the US has been constantly at war. Yet, as Norman Solomon points out in War Made Invisible, the government, with the collusion of the mainstream media, has hidden the true human cost of these wars. No dissent was allowed. Any broadcaster who was even suspected of refusing to fall in line, like Phil Donavan, was summarily dismissed before the invasion of Iraq. The media reported the number of American casualties but rarely if ever mentioned the casualties, many deliberately targeted, of the other side. They repeated every justification the government put forward for the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan without question. It was only as the US prepared to withdraw from Afghanistan after twenty years that some began to question its outcome if still not its purpose.

He also points out the hypocrisy and racism inherent in much of the reporting. Many reporters from the Global South, on viewing the reporting of US media after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, commented on how the deaths and suffering of Arabs and Asians in US wars had been treated as inconsequential while several US journalists talked about blonde and blue-eyed Ukrainians who ‘look like us’.

He also points out the other costs of these wars. Despite these forever wars, the War on Terror has created more terrorist groups and more hatred of the west. The death toll of US soldiers is far outnumbered by those left permanently disabled mentally as well as physically. And, finally, the economic cost is astronomical making one wonder what that money could have done domestically.

I finished War Made Invisible a while ago and have been struggling to write this review ever since. It is not that it was difficult to wade through like too many books like this. It is, in fact, a surprisingly easy read but it is not always a comfortable one. It is, however, powerful and, for anyone wanting to know the true human cost of invisible but perpetual war, important.

I received a copy of this book from Edelweiss+ and The NewPress in exchange for an honest review

[Marcy Winograd · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a searing indictment of the US war machine, author Norman Solomon lays much of the blame for decades of carnage–from Iraq to Afghanistan to Yemen to Somalia–at the door of the media: ABC, NBC, CBS, the cable news networks, the New York Times and Washington Post-all stenographers for the Pentagon, which has yet to pass an audit because, hey, money is missing.

“U.S. media support for the “war on terror” has been as perpetual as the “war on terror” itself,’ writes Solomon, who in one of the most chilling passages, describes how he traveled to Iraq three times shortly before the US invasion left an estimated one million Iraqis dead and wounded, their country’s landscape littered with depleted uranium dust from coated US tanks. “Eating dinner at an outdoor restaurant along the Tigris River, under the same stars that might be seen anywhere on Earth, couples and small groups of diners sat at a dozen candlelit tables; the dusk filled with laughter; I stared and thought about how terribly fragile it all was.”

The fragility of a starlit night turned to bomb-lit horror–be it in Kosovo, Baghdad or Beirut--can be blamed not only on the media–which fires journalists who ask too many probing questions–or on successive presidential administrations, from Clinton to Obama to Trump to Biden–but on an underlying belief in US exceptionalism.

Toward the end of Solomon’s meticulously detailed look at the invisibility of US wars, he turns to Daniel Ellsberg, the great Pentagon Papers whistleblower, for insight. “... it’s not difficult to deceive them (US public) … you’re often telling them what they want to believe–that we’re better than other people, we are superior in our morality.”

As Solomon’s critique of propaganda suggests, the first step in making war visible, in resisting an empire with 800 military bases and an endless “war on terror,” is to tell the truth, to show the face of war, to face the truth of a war-mad empire, and then act in defiance.

[Cailin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books on America’s failures in the Middle East tend to focus on either strategic/tactical blunders or the toll on American lives and American morale. One such example (though still an excellent book) is Fiasco by Thomas E. Ricks. I would position this book as a good counterpart to Fiasco, as it doesn’t provide as in-depth context for the events it discusses as I personally would have liked. I would definitely recommend this book to people who liked Fiasco.
For me, this book was at its strongest when discussing specific examples of civilian mistreatment. A passage that stuck with me was the author’s interaction with Guljumma and Wakil Tawos Khan, a pair of Afghan refugees and victims of bombing by the US. Reading about the stark reality of their struggle and the lack of help from any channel gave faces to the myriad of statistics cited in this book. I wish there were more firsthand accounts from refugees included in this book. Though this book, at its core, is about the systematic media coverup of civilian suffering in the Middle East at the hands of the American military, parts of this book still feel very America-centric without the voices of its victims included in the discussion.
Nevertheless, this book raised a lot of important points. My favorite chapter discussed the roles of racism and imperialism in America’s continued military involvement in countries around the world. It raised the important question, “What would an America without endless wars even look like? How much would have to change?” The answer is, of course, a lot, and I hope someone, be it the author of this book or someone else, takes that question and examines it further.

Thank you to NetGalley and The New Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Tupper Lienke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this an important informative book that is urgently needed at this time. Norman Solomon clearly articulates what I and many others have suspected, and knew in a partially informed way, about the U.S.'s continued war making since World War II. He informs the reader that at this time the U.S. is currently pursuing military action in 85 countries in the 'War on Terror'. This reality is made invisible to the public by a complicit media that is in support of this constant militarism by failing to report most of it, particularly the impact of war on the those peoples on the receiving end of our weapons, and when it does report it, cloaks the reporting in the unquestioned assumption that these actions are defensive and are carried out for humanitarian purposes to bring freedom and democracy to the rest of the world. The fact is they are horrifying acts of violent destruction and create more terror and hatred of the U.S. than existed before. He details the bias in the news reporting which, when they are reported, constantly speaks of these conflicts in terms of the sacrifice we are making to do good without reporting the actual effects of war. Solomon also discusses many other issues, including the editing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy to make it more palatable to mainstream thought, Barack Obama's actual legacy, and the ever increasing financial and social costs of endless war.

[Anusha Datar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This work of journalism exposes the extent and true costs of the American war machine. Solomon explores the outsized suffering civilians endured (and will continue to endure) at the hands of the American military, the media and political empires that continue to perpetuate this violence, and the technological developments that further separate militaries from the consequences of their actions.

I thought this book was well-written, especially given how heavy the topic is. Solomon makes a strong case without reducing the victims of violence to mere numbers (ironically) an without letting the reader lose sight of the scale of the issues he is exploring. He focuses foremost on the impacts on civilians, but he also explores how this kind of casual carnage harms soldiers and veterans.

I thought this book makes for a comprehensive (and upsetting) snapshot of the suffering and propaganda machine, but it doesn't really explore the broader puppet masters orchestrating it. I'd recommend this book as a piece that has aligned with/confirmed some of my assumptions about the American empire at large, but I wouldn't say it has shifted any paradigms from me.

[Ryan Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unsurprising yet still infuriating expose about how the US war machine uses politics and the media to conceal its real human toll and to finance its neverending operations, all in the service of huge profits for the military industrial complex. Should be read by everyone. People should be in the streets over the gross immorality of American imperialism, but most don't even understand it, or worse yet, fully support it. A sad commentary on the so-called "leader of the free world." A country that eats up and spits out its poor and disadvantaged (not to mention hundreds of thousands of civilians in other countries), feeding them to its war machine and then tossing them aside when their trauma and medical costs come calling. The media spin is quick to call for war crimes tribunals for other countries but remains silent on the US's flagrant flouting of international laws and illegal invasions and military operations. It's propaganda and corruption on a massive scale, all to line the pockets of CEOs and politicians who are bought and sold by the war machine. Sobering.

[Boukie's Bookshop · Rating 4 out of 5]

We're now 20 years removed from the US invasion of Iraq and the start of our ForeverWar, and though it's been a decade since I've left, it seems to me that popular opinion on the war has shifted. War Made Invisible shouldn't be revolutionary in it's topic - namely the real human, moral, and financial cost of maintaining our military industrial complex and supporting it's adventures in the Middle East. Rather, it should serve to deepen our understanding of it's scope. An essential read, and what should be a wake-up call for anyone thinking that we are right and righteous in our acts (though I doubt in this climate that such a person would pick this book up. A pity.)

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the digital advance copy of this book given to me in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Martin Tolton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a powerful book, and Solomon thoroughly quantifies the human tragedy and material cost of war.

He is overzealous in minimizing Russia's invasion of Ukraine with false comparisons while neglecting to mention Ukraine's sovereign right to seek defensive alliances, and such partnerships do not give Russia just as bellum for invasion.

Solomon's treatment of Israel does not mention the catalyst of the 2023/4 war in Gaza, and he apparently did not feel accuracy would be served by mentioning Hamas or Hezbollah at all or their published genocidal doctrine. Obvious omissions must, at some level, bring into question credibility.

Still, this book presents a critical perspective, that of the victims of war. Doing so will cause the reader to question humanity and Western foreign policy.

[Hannah Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his book “War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine” Norman Solomon sheds light on the United States’ engagement in perpetual warfare over the past two decades. The public’s awareness of ongoing military engagements remains limited, shaped by media bias and government influence. In this fascinating book Solomon delves into his insights, examines the pivotal role of the international community, and outline crucial steps towards a more comprehensive understanding of the far-reaching impacts of perpetual war and its implications for the future.

A must read for anyone who has questions about the human costs of the American military machine.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readers like me who depend on alternative press won't find a lot that is new; readers who depend on Mainstream or Fox will find new information. That said, there were additions to what I knew, especially in the sections that discuss Africa and a later chapter "The Costs of War."

The chapter titles do not always seem to relate to the content, and it seems it could have been better organized. Although the first chapter is titled , "Repetition and Omission," omission is a theme throughout the book. An important theme, to be sure. And the main thing omitted is the humanity and suffering of the civilians that is so quickly dismissed as "collateral damage."

[Mark Valentine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fulcrum that Solomon's book rests upon is justice. Irony will tip the balance one way or the other.
Solomon's skill and wisdom as a media critic and informed citizen is impeccable. He has decades of experience in journalism, in traveling to war-torn areas, and interviewing key individuals. His insights would make Orwell and Joseph Heller proud.

Healthy skepticism about corporate media and governmental reports and investigative reporting where there are no reports comprise his focus. As difficult as this topic is, it absolutely must have a wider audience--it is that important.

[Robert J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An insightful and thoroughly researched book delving into the USA's endless "War on Terror," the media's complicity in perpetuating the government's empire-building agenda, and examining the winners (military contractors and politicians) and the losers (the invisible victims of American bombs, American combat veterans, and the USA's schools and social programs bled by the Pentagon's engorged budgets). Solomon's book should be mandatory reading.

[kathryn donovan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Coverage of Afghanistan amounted to an average of twenty-four minutes per network, per year, for a conflict on which the U.S. has spent 2.3 trillion of the public's funds" Funds that could have gone towards healthcare, education and other social services.

As the poet William Stafford wrote, "Every war has two losers". The only winners in America's wars are the corporations that receive money from these massive defense budgets.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real eye-opener. I'd never heard of this theory that America is involved in a secret, perpetual war but it does make sense. The US is worried that China has lots of military bases around the world (they have 5 - the US has 750!). Mainstream media in the US has badly let us down - they ignore what the US government gets up to in the interests of promoting Team America.