The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth in Bush's America
by Frank Rich
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Book Summary Information
Author: Frank RichEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-08-28
ISBN: 0143112341
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Reviews of The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth in Bush's America
Book Review: A Pretty Incredible Story
Summary: 4 Stars
Here's a masterful work detailing the incidental to the essential in White House efforts to peddle to the world the importance, validity, and need for an Iraq war.
The author's connected the dots, filled in the blanks and colored inside the boxes in an interesting, believable way. He describes the hows and whys of the administration's successful pre-war "sales" activity designed to sway the public and Congress into thinking war was The necessary action. From WMDs, to "Mission Accomplished," to Chalabi, to Powell's UN presentation, to aluminum tubes, and more....it's all here, and it's often irritating to learn our government/president made much of the pre-plans for war a huge public relations effort.
The administration, I've gathered, had fiddled with the playbook and pitched picking a fight with Saddam Hussein to us like they might have been selling soap or used cars on TV. Author Rich is so good in this clear, readable chronology, the reader might believe he's put together historical evidence of fact, which he might have. But wait.
We find late into the work, Rich might have an axe of his own to sharpen. He lowers the boom down on GWB and friends in a crash...by including chapter and verse on the administration's Louisiana bungling during and after Hurricane Katrina. But why? He doesn't at all make it precisely clear how Katrina might be relevant to starting our spurious war.
Rich offers an obvious personal evaluation regarding the White House's hurricane efforts: "Bush, too, stood revealed as a blowhard and a snake oil salesman" [page 199]. Storm Katrina is Rich's proof that GW served us up a bogus war? --Seems a tenuous thesis connection at best. It sours his Iraq War explanations somewhat. So, how much of the book can we really believe happened?
Still, with a bit of reservation, after reading the "Greatest Story," we do come away feeling we were sold a lame bill of war goods. The book works its magic so well, one has to now wonder how much of the administration's current "Surge" is just more of the same kind of PR double-talk. Suddenly, with just 20,000 more troops, Iraq is turning the corner? After 4 years of hopelessness, a mere 8 months of a brand new and grand plan has done the trick in Iraq? -Or is it more of Rich's kind of White House "snake oil" for the masses?
The book does get one thinking. Thanks, Frank Rich; you've opened our eyes with this important work!
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