The War on Truth
 | |
| Author | Neil Mackay |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | non-fiction |
| Published | 30 October 2006 |
| Publisher | Sunday Herald Books |
| ISBN | 978-1904684152 |
The War on Truth is a 2006 book that investigates the circumstances of the British involvement in the Iraq War, written by Herald journalist Neil Mackay.[1]
The book's subtitle is Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Invasion of Iraq but Your Government Wouldn't Tell You.[2]
Summary
[edit]The book investigates the circumstances that led to the war in Iraq, the war itself and its aftermath.[1] It focusses on disinformation from the British government and questions the existence of democracy in the UK.[1]
The Chapter: How the Lies were Told focusses on Operation Rockingham, which is described as a government effort to cherry pick data that would support the government's villainous characterization of Saddam Hussein, his ownership of weapons of mass destruction, and the justification for the war.[2] The book reports that United Nations staff in Iraq constantly fed information to Operation Rockingham.[2] The operation ignored vast quantities of data about the weaknesses of Iraqi troops, Iraqi compliance with international rules, and instead only presented information that justified the British government's pro-war stance.[2] The cherry-picking approach was described to have been undertaken at the direction of the British government and led to the production of the infamous "Dodgy Dossier".[2] Mackay credits Michael Meacher for his critique of Operation Rockingham[2] and documents how the events damaged the reputation of Tony Blair.[3]
The book also documents how the British government manipulated the press by planting poorly-substantiated stories in overseas newspapers, then encouraging UK press to report on the foreign reporting.[2]
The book describes how Republican American efforts to push for the war made a military intervention a foregone conclusion.[4]
Research
[edit]Neil Mackay was supported by Scott Ritter in the production of the book.[2]
Critical reception
[edit]The book drew substantive praise from Ken Coates in his book Surging for Oil.[2] Coats calls the book "splendid" several times and celebrates that Mackay has combined his years of reporting into a "highly lethal single volume".[2]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c [citation needed]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Coates, Ken (2007). Surging for Oil (PDF). pp. 79–81. ISBN 978-0851247434.
- ^ Nineham, C. (2013). Making the news: the media and the movement against the Iraq war (doctoral thesis). University of Westminster. p115
- ^ Hamm, B. (2015), "The end of democracy as we knew it", Foresight, Vol. 17 No. 2, pp. 161–193. doi:10.1108/FS-04-2014-0024