Rating: 
Summary: Essential Reading
Review: This book should be on the reading list of anyone who wants to make an informed voting decision in November. The author reveals startling information about the mishandling of the Iraqi situation, and provides telling insight into the decision making processes of the Bush administration. Please read before you vote in November. Disregard those close-minded reviewers who *condemn* the book simply because it dosen't conform to what they believe to be the *truth*. Read the book first and then judge for yourself the veracity of Moore's revelations.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant expose' of Bush's 'war on terrorism'
Review: This is a riveting account of Bush's war against Iraq, its causes and consequences. Veteran journalist James Moore vividly shows the courage and patriotism of American soldiers in battle and the heartache of the casualties' families. He contrasts this with the cold-hearted lying of those who abuse their trust. In particular, he examines the doctored military records of a certain congressman's son, who managed to evade serving in the war against Vietnam.In 2000, outgoing President Clinton told George W. Bush that the terrorist threat from bin Laden was 'the top priority', followed by Israel-Palestine, North Korea, India-Pakistan and Saddam Hussein. Bush replied, "I think you've got your priorities wrong. I'm putting Saddam at the top of the list." From the first, Bush targeted Iraq, which has oil, not Al Qa'ida, which doesn't. So Bush had to lie that Iraq, not Al Qa'ida, was the main threat to the American people. Fortunately for him, the US state has decades of experience of deceiving people into aggressive wars. Moore examines several of these tested techniques. For example, Bush alleged that Iraq had bought aluminum tubes to help develop nuclear weapons. Here's how it works. Ignore the facts - the experts at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory unanimously found that the tubes were not for nuclear weapons. Plant the story with a pliant journalist - in this case, Pulitzer Prize-winning Judith Miller of the New York Times. Order the intelligence and scientific communities not to dispute the administration's claims, implying that any dissent would be treated as treachery. Do a media blitz, and use the silence from the spooks and scientists as proof of the claims. Get an administration stooge - Colin Powell - to tell the lie to the UN. Get another stooge - Blair - to repeat the lie around the world. Moore also shows how the US Army censored reports from Iraq - that's what 'embedded journalism' means - so Judith Miller reported what the Army told her. She got most of her WMD stories from Ahmad Chalabi, who told the same tales to the Army and the White House, which then confirmed their truth to Miller. Moore recounts how, eight days after Joseph Wilson wrote that the White House 'twisted intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat', 'senior administration officials' released his wife's identity as a CIA agent. Divulging such information is a criminal offence. Using known forgeries is another technique. Although even Berlusconi's tabloid paper Panorama turned down an article based on forged documents alleging that Iraq bought uranium from Niger, Blair published the story as fact in his September 2002 dossier, and Bush used it in his State of the Union address. Bush also has techniques for stealing elections: his new one, electronic touch screen voting, beats 'hanging chads' and postal voting any day. Georgia was the first state to conduct an election using only electronic voting: as a result, the Republican candidate's votes rose by 16% in the four days after the last opinion poll, producing the first Republican governor of the state in 130 years. Nebraska's Republican Senator Chuck Hagel owns the firm that counted 85% of the votes in the state election that he won with 83% of the vote, the largest electoral victory in Nebraska's history. November's Presidential election is scheduled to be conducted electronically.
Rating:
Summary: An Affable Man Deficient in Character
Review: This is one book that should be read by every American, whether you are pro-Bush or anti-Bush, liberal or conservative. Moore sheds light on the nature of true patriotism by interweaving the very personal and moving stories of soldiers who fought and died in Vietnam along with the heart-rending stories of some of the heroes who died in Iraq. These poignant stories form the backdrop against which Moore details of how George W. Bush avoided serving in Vietnam by receiving preferential treatment in get a spot in the Texas National Guard -- and then went AWOL to work on a GOP campaign in another state. There are other important themes that author Moore elucidates, such as the recurring accusation that Bush was dead set on deposed Saddam Hussein even before he took the oath of office. By now, we all know that Iraq was not an imminent threat to the US, that there were no weapons of mass destruction, and that Saddam was little more that a "mayor of Baghdad." We also know that Iraqis did not welcome American troops with open arms, as we had been told. One of the most troubling themes Moore describes is the lack of preparedness American soldiers received in terms of arms and equipment. The lack of appropriate body armor for soldiers has already received wide coverage in the press. But Moore follows the same mechanized unit that Jessica Lynch was attached to in the ambush at Al Nasiriyah which occurred after the 507th took a wrong turn in the desert. There's a lot more to the incident than has come out in the press, especially with the sensationalism of the rescue of Private Lynch. Perhaps more lives would have been saved if the military had provided these troops with weapons that not get jammed, and a commication system that actually worked. Battery operated walkie-talkies and communication devices were useless when the batteries went dead. And many of the young soldiers had been put into a position of having to purchase extra batteries because none had been supplied by the military. Conservative and pro-Bush citizens may close their ears and hearts to the preceding information written passionately and lucidly by Mr. Moore. They may poo-poo incident in which right-wing journalist Robert Novak revealed the identity of a CIA operative based on comments revealed by a "high ranking administration official". But the one chapter in the book that MUST be read by every American is "Soldier Down." In "Soldier Down," chapter 15, James Moore delves into the dirty details or electronic voting, the companies that build the software and hardware for the electronic voting machines, the startling ties of those companies to the Bush adminnistration. With no paper trail and no method for holding a recount, these machines may be the downfall of our democracy. The machines have an unacceptable error rate, can be hacked into, and offer the possibility of "fixing" elections. Radical Republicans may welcome this underhanded way of usurping power. But they should pause and think first. If the electronic voting machines are incestuously linked to the GOP, as Moore states, and if that linkage is used nefariously to boost GOP election results -- well, the Republicans don't have that market cornered on how to prevent others from taking advantage of the vulnerabilities of the electronic voting system. Perhaps there are equally nefarious hackers with allegiance to the Democratic party or to Ralph Nader. Even worse, what is terrorists trained in the best computer science programs in the United States set out to sabotage our election process. As a systems engineer familiar with security issues, these are not conspiracy theories or fantasy threats. We all have a stake in safeguarding the integrity of our voting system, now more than ever. With divisiveness between the two major political parties at an all-time high, it may serve us well to remember that true patriotism is allegiance to a body of ideals expressed in our Constitution and symbolized by our flag. Patriotism is not a matter of left or right, nor a matter of allegiance to a particular politician or a particular political party. This is a point well made by Mr. Moore.
Rating:
Summary: Our Democracy at Stake
Review: This is one book that should be read by every American, whether you are pro-Bush or anti-Bush, liberal or conservative. Moore sheds light on the nature of true patriotism by interweaving the very personal and moving stories of soldiers who fought and died in Vietnam along with the heart-rending stories of some of the heroes who died in Iraq. These poignant stories form the backdrop against which Moore details of how George W. Bush avoided serving in Vietnam by receiving preferential treatment in get a spot in the Texas National Guard -- and then went AWOL to work on a GOP campaign in another state. There are other important themes that author Moore elucidates, such as the recurring accusation that Bush was dead set on deposed Saddam Hussein even before he took the oath of office. By now, we all know that Iraq was not an imminent threat to the US, that there were no weapons of mass destruction, and that Saddam was little more that a "mayor of Baghdad." We also know that Iraqis did not welcome American troops with open arms, as we had been told. One of the most troubling themes Moore describes is the lack of preparedness American soldiers received in terms of arms and equipment. The lack of appropriate body armor for soldiers has already received wide coverage in the press. But Moore follows the same mechanized unit that Jessica Lynch was attached to in the ambush at Al Nasiriyah which occurred after the 507th took a wrong turn in the desert. There's a lot more to the incident than has come out in the press, especially with the sensationalism of the rescue of Private Lynch. Perhaps more lives would have been saved if the military had provided these troops with weapons that not get jammed, and a commication system that actually worked. Battery operated walkie-talkies and communication devices were useless when the batteries went dead. And many of the young soldiers had been put into a position of having to purchase extra batteries because none had been supplied by the military. Conservative and pro-Bush citizens may close their ears and hearts to the preceding information written passionately and lucidly by Mr. Moore. They may poo-poo incident in which right-wing journalist Robert Novak revealed the identity of a CIA operative based on comments revealed by a "high ranking administration official". But the one chapter in the book that MUST be read by every American is "Soldier Down." In "Soldier Down," chapter 15, James Moore delves into the dirty details or electronic voting, the companies that build the software and hardware for the electronic voting machines, the startling ties of those companies to the Bush adminnistration. With no paper trail and no method for holding a recount, these machines may be the downfall of our democracy. The machines have an unacceptable error rate, can be hacked into, and offer the possibility of "fixing" elections. Radical Republicans may welcome this underhanded way of usurping power. But they should pause and think first. If the electronic voting machines are incestuously linked to the GOP, as Moore states, and if that linkage is used nefariously to boost GOP election results -- well, the Republicans don't have that market cornered on how to prevent others from taking advantage of the vulnerabilities of the electronic voting system. Perhaps there are equally nefarious hackers with allegiance to the Democratic party or to Ralph Nader. Even worse, what is terrorists trained in the best computer science programs in the United States set out to sabotage our election process. As a systems engineer familiar with security issues, these are not conspiracy theories or fantasy threats. We all have a stake in safeguarding the integrity of our voting system, now more than ever. With divisiveness between the two major political parties at an all-time high, it may serve us well to remember that true patriotism is allegiance to a body of ideals expressed in our Constitution and symbolized by our flag. Patriotism is not a matter of left or right, nor a matter of allegiance to a particular politician or a particular political party. This is a point well made by Mr. Moore.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting angle
Review: You must keep the title in mind while reading this book as, if you don't, you're not likely to remember the book's point.
I got the book largely because I was impressed with "Bush's Brain," the other book one of whose authors was James Moore who wrote this volume. He starts the book with an "in memory" of military men the fate of whom he covers more thoroughly in the text. He then covers some details of the military actions in which those individuals were involved--and in which they and others were killed.
The text then covers much of Dubya's dubious military record. Well, as I've said to many, if most of us were so irresponsible to our commanders, national guard or otherwise, we'd be in jail.
I guess what impressed me most was the style and the angle of the text. I'm not accustomed to such detailed coverage of military actions, then reflections on the lives of the survivors of those to whom the book is dedicated.
While it's been a couple of months since I finished the book, I review it now and see the only "objections" I had to the text: There are so many at best distantly related subjects that the theme of the book wasn't clear. I opened a chapter now and saw the part I'd forgotten about voting machines in Florida. And the next chapter is about the wife and daughters of one of the marines killed in Iraq.
Overall it's not a bad book, but, again, the object of the book doesn't seem clear. Add it, perhaps, to your library of books challenging the "war" in Iraq (and the moral capacity of those who instigated it) but don't read it until you've read many of the others that are more clearly presented.
| 
