Bush's War For Reelection: Iraq, the White House, and the People - Hardcover

Moore, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471483850 ISBN 13: 9780471483854

Publisher: Wiley, 2004

Synopsis

A news-breaking exposé of the Bush administration's rush to war, from the coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Bush's Brain
In this exclusive behind-the-scenes account, veteran journalist James Moore reveals how the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was a key goal of the Bush administration from the very beginning-and a critical component of the president's reelection strategy. Drawing on high-level sources inside the administration and the military, Moore weaves together a multifaceted narrative that probes the political underpinnings of the administration's push for an Iraq war, exposes efforts during the war (and after) to manipulate perceptions of U.S. military success, and contrasts it all to the ultimate price paid by soldiers duped into believing they were fighting for a just cause, not for political gain.
Moore takes us inside strategy meetings at the White House and the Pentagon, revealing the political calculus behind critical military decisions. He examines the administration's unprecedented efforts to control an d withhold information, including in-depth discussions with Joseph C. Wilson, husband of Valerie Plame, the CIA operative allegedly exposed by Karl Rove. Moore also gives us an uncensored view of combat in Iraq, reporting opinions of a senior Air Force source and troops on the ground; he shows how the war's first American casualty actually died, and reveals what really happened to Jessica Lynch's unit.
Finally, Moore uncovers what might be in store if Bush wins reelection: the use of Iraq as a forward base in the fight against terrorism, and where the war may go next. Publishing at the height of the presidential election season next spring, Bush's War for Reelection is sure to be one of the most talked about books of the year.

About this title

About the Author

JAMES MOORE is an Emmy Award—winning TV news correspondent with more than a quarter century of print and broadcast experience. Moore is also the author—along with Wayne Slater—of the New York Times bestseller Bush's Brain, also published by Wiley. He has traveled extensively on every Presidential campaign since 1976. His reports have appeared on CNN, NBC, and CBS. His professional honors include: an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association, and the Individual Broadcast Achievement Award from the Texas Headliners' Foundation.

From the Back Cover

"In November of 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld assured us that the then-looming second Iraq war ‘has nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil.' Since then, we've heard many other assertions about the war from George W. Bush and his cronies. And we've become less willing to believe. In this scathing indictment, Jim Moore adds to our reasons for doubt. He exposes the fibs and half-truths, ranging from Bush's disappearing act during his stint in the Texas Air National Guard, to the doctored intelligence reports that the Bush administration used to justify invading Iraq. He exposes the prevaricators while giving compassionate portraits of the soldiers who've died there. This book will make you mad. It might even make you vote."
—Robert Bryce author of Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron and the soon-to-be-released Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate

"Jim Moore takes you into the minds of the warriors on the battlefield and to the heart of the decisions that put them there. A brilliant, unconventional look at war and its aftermath."
—Wayne Slater, Senior Political Writer, Dallas Morning News

"James Moore masterfully details how Bush's war for reelection has real victims: the families of soldiers who have died in Iraq and American citizens who have dared to tell the truth. This exhaustively researched book exposes the dishonest underside of an administration that claims integrity as its calling card. Real young men and women are paying the price for Bush's follies with their lives, Moore reveals, while the man in the White House has used elitist connections to avoid ever risking anything."
—Mark Karlin, Editor, BuzzFlash.com

From the Inside Flap

Bush's War for Reelection: Iraq, the White House, and the People goes inside the White House and the Pentagon to show how the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was a Bush goal before 9/11?and how 9/11 became the justification. Bestselling author James Moore examines the unprecedented efforts by the Bush administration to suppress and distort intelligence, and withhold the truth from the American public, including an in-depth discussion with Joseph C. Wilson, the former ambassador, whose CIA agent wife was allegedly exposed by Bush operative Karl Rove.

Using his deep resources and contacts, Moore takes you inside the war and provides a view of combat in Iraq, which the U.S. government has managed to keep from the American public. Senior officers and troops on the ground tell Moore exactly what happened in the war's opening days, including the real causes of the ambush of the 507th Mechanized Company where Jessica Lynch served. Exclusive interviews and documents also detail how the deaths in Charlie Company at the Battle of Nasiriyah were connected to the tragedy of the 507th, and how an American fighter pilot appears to have killed U.S. Marines.

James Moore also interviews a Lieutenant Colonel from the Texas Air National Guard who claims to have witnessed "embarrassments" being removed from the Guard records of President Bush. And he tells the emotional stories of military families committed to the service of America, and how they are coping with the loss of their loved ones. Bush's War for Reelection carefully explores the moral questions related to pre-emptive war and its effects on the future of all Americans.

Drawing on high-level sources in the Bush administration, the U.S. military, media, political operatives, and the families of soldiers who are doing the fighting and dying, Moore exposes the political and economic underpinnings of the rush to war. In the final analysis, the devotion and trust of American troops have been taken advantage of by a White House that has skillfully manipulated perceptions of the war on terrorism and Saddam Hussein.

Combining the dramatic tension of combat with the intrigue of presidential and global politics, Bush's War for Reelection delivers a version of current affairs and recent U.S. history, which, until now, had gone unwritten.

Reviews

This furious, scattershot j’accuse is more an attack on Bush’s character than on his Iraq policy. Revisiting such controversies as the aluminum tubes canard and the forged documents about Iraqi uranium purchases from Niger, journalist Moore (co-author of Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George Bush Presidential) asserts that the Bush Administration cynically proffered charges it knew to be false in order to trump up a case for invading Iraq, an effort abetted, he says, by a credulous media. Moore juxtaposes his allegations of Bush Administration underhandedness with several somewhat mawkish chapters on the lives, deaths and funerals of three American soldiers killed in the invasion, complete with family members’ recriminations against Bush for sending other people’s children to die under dishonest pretenses. Moore also includes a thorough rehash of the evidence for Bush’s apparent desertion from the National Guard during the Vietnam War, a dereliction that he contrasts with reminiscences of men who fought in Vietnam while the privileged Bush, he says, played hooky. From this heavy-handed counterpoint between muck-raking exposes and tear-jerking war stories emerges an indictment of a president who, Moore says, betrayed the soldierly ideals he now appropriates for political gain, for whom "duty, honor and service…were only words." Moore is a fine reporter and debunker, and marshals a compelling summation of the accusations surrounding Bush’s own war record and the seemingly fraudulent rationale for invading Iraq. Unfortunately, his fleeting analysis of the politics behind the war settles for simplistic assertions that it was all about oil. With so much of the book devoted to what Moore depicts as Bush’s scandalous perfidy, he never develops a cogent critique of the president’s policies.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0471483850
• ISBN 13: 9780471483854
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400