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  • Documenting, Dissecting, and Decrying Terrorism and Anti-Terrorism
  • Caroline Joan (Kay) Picart (bio)
Fear’s Empire: War, Terrorism, and Democracy. By Benjamin R. Barber. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2003; pp 192. $23.95 cloth.
God Willing? Political Fundamentalism in the White House, the “War on Terror,” and the Echoing Press. By David Domke. London: Pluto Press, 2004; pp 256. $75.00 cloth; $22.95 paper.
Tell Me Lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the Attack on Iraq. Edited by David Miller. London: Pluto Press, 2004; pp 320. $69.96 cloth; $19.95 paper.
Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill. By Jessica Stern. New York: HarperCollins, 2004; pp 400. $27.95 cloth; $15.95 paper.

In the aftermath of 9/11 (and at a time when Bush's former popularity now begins to plummet, particularly on the issue of continuing to send troops to Iraq), books on terrorism and the Bush administration's response to terrorism have become legion, and the four books discussed in this review essay represent a spectrum of positions. David Miller's Tell Me Lies, an anthology that boasts names such as Noam Chomsky, Robert Fisk, Edward Herman, and John Pilger, among others, is an aggressive denunciation of the Bush-Blair alliance that rhetorically authorized the bombing of Iraq as a "natural" offshoot of anti-terrorist "defensive" policies, even when there was no clearly established connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. This particular anthology is unrepentantly scathing in its denunciation of various deceptions to which the U.S. and [End Page 693] British media became party, either consciously or inadvertently. For example, to strengthen the image of Iraq as a dark menace, the U.S. intelligence report noted that Iraq "can deliver chemical and biological agents using an extensive range of artillery shells, free-fall bombs, sprayers and ballistic missiles . . . The Iraq military are able to deploy these weapons within 45 minutes of a decision to do so."1 While the claim regarding a possible 45-minute deployment was accurate concerning battlefield mortar shells or small-caliber weaponry, the elision of these weapons with long-range ballistic missiles (through an effectively placed "blank" connective meant to be filled in by the audience, rather than directly stated by Blair) effectively led to a multiple deception, resulting in a formidable scare tactic. David Miller, who wrote the introduction, does not pull any punches:

The 45 minutes claim involved at least three separate deceptions: on the existence of the agent in weaponised form; on the existence of the delivery mechanism; and on the application of the 45 minutes claim to long-range delivery systems. Weaving these various deceptions into a wholly false picture of a "current" Iraqi threat required deliberate deception, but deception with a purpose; the purpose was to present the deception in such a way as to encourage the media to draw the obvious conclusion. That it did so is more than evident in the headline in the London Evening Standard that day, "45 Minutes from Attack" (24 September 2003), or in the Daily Express the next day, "Saddam Can Strike in 45 Minutes"

(25 September 2003).2

The portraits of the Bush and Blair administrations are far from flattering. John Pilger begins with a reference to Wilfrid Owens's well-known poem "Dulce et decorum est"—a debunking of the old lie that it is "sweet" to die for one's country, particularly when one sees young men doomed to die like "old beggars under sacks"3 (and particularly when the "noble" cause for their deaths is built on lies). Pilger is scathing in his unrepentant critique of the war's utter disregard for Iraqi suffering. Thus he cites General Norman Schwarzkopf's contrasting remarks regarding American mechanical losses and the Iraqi death toll. Regarding American tools, Schwarzkopf remarked to an aide that "this is the first war in modern times . . . where every screwdriver, every nail, is accounted for." In sharp contrast, regarding the loss of Iraqi human life, he remarked, with a sudden loss of interest in precise figures, "I don't think anybody is going to come up with an accurate count for Iraqi dead."4

One...

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