Target Iraq: What the News Media Don't Tell Us

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg@tin.it>]

Norman Solomon
ZNet

1) Can you tell ZNet, please, what your new book is about? What is it
trying to communicate?

The book is primarily an assessment of key lies and omissions in the
U.S. government's push toward war on Iraq. The subtitle -- "What the
news media didn't tell you" -- may be overly ambitious, since it would
take many books to cover all such relevant ground. But this book, which
I co-wrote with foreign correspondent Reese Erlich, focuses on central
aspects of the propaganda campaign that gradually made it possible for
the Bush II administration to be able to unleash a huge murderous
assault on people in Iraq. The book is trying to communicate that the
Bush team's media blitz in the United States was fueled by selective
(mis)information, and that the mainstream U.S. media generally
participated in the manipulation. Along the way, "Target Iraq" focuses
on the pivotal role of Colin Powell, who was praised in the fall of 2002
by many people who should have known better. Overall, the war on Iraq
has been made possible by pervasive mendacity from Washington and by
go-along-to-get-along reflexes in major media. To put the consequences
in human context, the book includes descriptions of what Reese and I saw
and heard during our visits to Iraq in late 2002.

2) Can you tell ZNet something about writing the book? Where does the
content come from? What went into making the book what it is?

Reese Erlich and I traveled to Iraq together in September 2002. There
were official meetings with Tariq Aziz and other high-ranking Iraqi
functionaries, visits to a children's hospital and more informal
gatherings. Reese traveled elsewhere in Iraq -- he's a very thorough
journalist and keeps asking questions everywhere he goes -- and in the
book he does a lot of original reporting on the effects of sanctions,
the grim aftermath of the Pentagon's use of depleted uranium during the
Gulf War in 1991, and attitudes among "ordinary" Iraqi people out of
earshot of Saddam Hussein's regime. I returned to Baghdad in December
2002, traveling with Sean Penn, and incorporated information and
experiences from that visit into the book just before it went to
press.The book includes a lot of content analysis of the U.S. media spin
during the crucial pre-war months -- in counterpoint to other available
information and the firsthand knowledge that we gained while visiting
Iraq.

3) What are your hopes for "Target Iraq"? What do you hope it will
contribute or achieve, politically? Given the effort and aspirations you
have for the book, what will you deem to be a success? What would leave
you happy about the whole undertaking? What would leave you wondering if
it was worth all the time and effort?

I hope the book provides intellectual and emotional support for stopping
the U.S. war on Iraq. We need to build an extremely strong antiwar
movement in a very short time. I think the "Target Iraq" book can
combine with other work, being done by many people, to help create
massive nonviolent resistance to Washington's war machine. Nothing would
please me more than seeing the book used as a tool to impede and stop
the Pentagon's activities of mass murder ordered by President George W.
Bush. The book was written in the spirit of a quote that appears in the
first chapter, from Albert Camus: "And henceforth, the only honorable
course will be to stake everything on a formidable gamble: that words
are more powerful than munitions."



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Nello

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