The book is written by a respected US Gov Official. He has nothing to gain from writing this book but the contentment of disseminating the reality of US involvement in the middle east. Since writing the book, he has been chastised for being unpatriotic and even anti-semitic - all these reaction being confirmations of guilt. There is little subjectivity in this book - in fact it is not invigorating. Rather, Clark works through hard fact, in an appropriate level of detail, to describe just how misled the general public can be about war, and the incredible effects of sensationalist media and gov propaganda on the collective opinion. Read It.

Since the British lost their grip on the Middle-East, the U.S. have taken over. Mr. Clark very accurately describes how the role of the U.S. during the Gulf war fits into the bigger picture of how the U.S. have tried (and succeeded) for decades to remain the world's number one power. At first, I only wanted to read the book because I had some little doubts about the objectivity of the information that we received via the media. On the whole, I agreed that action was needed, and that the war against Iraq could not be avoided. Until I read this book...It was like shells fell from my eyes. I realise now that not only there was a lot more violence used against Iraq than we were told, and that the purpose of this war was not to get Iraq out of Kuwait (which was indeed the 19th province of Iraq before England "created" Kuwait out of it in 1922), but to cripple an entire nation for decades to come. But also that this war was carefully planned by the U.S. for years. Mr. Clark shows this with countless examples, that make you say to yourself: "yes, I always had doubts about that". One of them is that although the CIA was already aware for sixth months that during the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq used poison gas against the kurds in the North of Iraq, it never revealled this information to the press until after the Iran-Iraq ceasefire in 1988, 3 hours before an Iraqi delegate arrived in the U.S. and gave a press conference. This delegate was rather taken by surprise by the questions he got at this press-conference. I can hardly exagerate the need for everybody to read this book, and learn what price the Iraqi people had to pay to secure U.S. access to cheap oil...that's what bothers me most: this war was not about democracy or human rights, it was about money and power only. And by the way: all this talk about U.S. attempts to eliminate Mr. Hussein is, of course, nonsense. The U.S. still need him in the saddle because he gives the U.S. the excuse for presence in the Gulf and maintaining the economic sanctions. READ THIS BOOK!!! And see, among other things, that not only the Iraqi people were informed very subjectively by their media. We were also by ours.

An excellent book, throughly footnoted and straight forward. Don't pay any attention to the previous reviewer who comes of as some sawed off war hack who hasn't even read the book to start with.Since he doesnt agree with Clark, he resorts to character assassination of this great man..shows the mindset of "if you're not with me, you're against me." Clark does an excellent job in exposing the US for its terror campaign in the Middle East, not just the Iraq affair. If you have open mind and a consciousness and persistance for the facts, this book is for you...if not, than keep away from this book as it may cause problems to your "patriotic" brainwashed mindset.