What We Knew, What We Were Told
(The Stories That Led Us to War)
(The headlines on this page are links to articles archived on this site. The archived headlines are links to original articles.)
How PR Sold
the War in the Persian Gulf
Excerpted from Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, Chapter 10
March 19: US says Iraq linked to al-Qaeda
April 16: A War Against the Peacemaker
August 12: USA Today Repeats Myths on Iraq Inspectors
August 20: Bush's Summer Reading List Hints at Iraq
August 20: US pushes PR for war with Iraq
August 21: Al Qaeda Presence In Iraq Reported Baghdad Knows, Rumsfeld Says
August 21: Sharing the Evidence on Iraq
August 22: "Wag the Puppy" -- New Twist in Media War
August 22: Protesters, Police Clash Downtown During Presidential Visit
August 23: Dissing the Dissenters
August 27: Saddam Does Not Have "Weapons of Mass Destruction"
August 28: 'A link between Saddam and bin Laden? No way' (linked footnotes)
August 29: Saddam a threat to energy supply, Cheney tells vets
August 29: Bush wrong to use pretext as excuse to invade Iraq
August 30: Not So Fast Bush Will Invade Iraq ... Eventually
Remember this? Selling war on Iraq follows rules for new product launch. (Cartoon.)
September 1: Hail and farewell (Chris Matthews final column)
September 2: The source of all evil
September 2: How low can we go?
September 2: The Cheney Doctrine: War without end
September 3: Dick Cheney's Nightmare of Peace
September 3: As hawks debate, ordinary Iraqis continue to suffer
September 3: Hypocrisy now!
September 3: Powell Cites 'Real' Divide Internally on Iraq Policy
September 3: History will look back and say, jeeminy yow!
September 4: Plans For Iraq Attack Began On 9/11
September 5: Don't look now: Saddam is drowning kittens
September 5: The Powell Trap: Easing Us Into War
September 5: Clinton: Get bin Laden before pursuing Saddam
September 6: Bomb the lot of them
September 6: In war, some facts less factual
September 6: When contemplating war, beware of babies in incubators
September 6: U.S. officials worried by lack of Iraqi weapons evidence
September 7: TRACES OF TERROR: THE STRATEGY
September 7: Poll: Don't Go It Alone On Iraq
September 8: Bush, Blair Decry Hussein
September 9: Interview with Scott Ritter
September 9: Iraq weapons report
September 10: Real Battles and Empty Metaphors
September 10: U.S. Not Claiming Iraqi Link To Terror
September 10: Ironic if Bush himself causes jihad
September 11: The US Media: A Weapon of Mass Deception
September 11: Democrats Unconvinced On Iraq War
September 11: Top arms official sees no solid case against Iraq
September 11: THREATS AND RESPONSES: BAGHDAD ARSENAL; U.S. Lacks Up-to-Date Review of Iraqi Arms
September 11: Russia to play key role in building Iraq attack support
September 12: US accused of double standards at UN
September 12: President's Remarks at the United Nations General Assembly
September 12: Why Aren't U.S. Journalists Reporting From Iraq?
September 12: Marketing Iraq: Why now? (Marketing mushroom clouds)
September 12: Poll: Most Expect War With Iraq
September 12 & 13: CNN and Fox interviews with Scott Ritter. (Excerpt)
September 13: Observers: Evidence For War Lacking
September 13: A Decade of Deception and Defiance (pdf)
September 13: Hawks hit by a rhetorical ricochet
September 13: Aides say Bush planned all along to seek U.N. support
September 14: Never Forget What?
September 15: Iraq Briefings: Don't Ask, Don't Tell
September 16: Democrats Question Iraq Timing
September 17: American Historians Speak Out
September 17: Untested administration hawks clamor for war
September 18: Inspectors face a daunting task if they are allowed in
September 18: Iraq's offer slows Bush momentum
September 18: Saddam's concessions will never be enough for the US
September 18: Rumsfeld Repeats the Myths
September 18: Curses! Dubya Gets Foiled Again
September 18: President Bush wants war, not justice
September 19: Evidence on Iraq Challenged (aluminum tubes)
September 19: Cheney makes plea in Conn. stop
September 19: UN to upset Bush's war plans with one-year deadline for Iraq
September 20: De-Saddamization, Not Disarmament
September 20: The News Dissector And The President
September 20: PBS Fails to Hold Rumsfeld Accountable
September 20: Persistence on Iraq Pays Off for Bush
September 20: Bush-Hitler Remark Shows U.S. as Issue In German Election
September 22: Culture War With B-2's
September 22: Have local hawks flown south?
September 22: Marching off to peace
September 22: Unveiled: the thugs Bush wants in place of Saddam
September 23: Lawmakers Hear Pleas Against War
September 23: Don't Ask, Don't Tell
September 23: Forget the Evidence by Brendan O'Neill
September 24: Bush doctrine makes waves overseas
September 24: A 'liberated' Iraq could end up like Weimar Germany
September 24: THREATS AND RESPONSES: CONGRESS; 3 Retired Generals Warn Of Peril in Attacking Iraq Without Backing of U.N.
September 24: Blair's dodgy dossier
September 25: Louder War Talk, and Muffled Dissent
September 25: No More Bratwurst!
September 26: Bush Asserts That Al Qaeda Has Links to Iraq's Hussein
September 26: Kucinich and Tauscher: War Vote Should Happen After Election
September 27: Neoconservatives Are Crazy
September 27: Unwanted Debate on Iraq-Al Qaeda Links Revived
September 29: 'This war is wrong and we won't stand for it'
September 30: Unasked Questions
October 1: THREATS AND RESPONSES: THE WHITE HOUSE
October 1: Two GOP Senators Urge Iraq Coalition
October 1: WH Press Briefing on the Biden-Lugar resolution
October 1: Naming Names, or Not
October 1: Reality, If Not Normality
October 1: War fear grips people of Baghdad
October 2: Analysis: Can US stop Iraq inspections?
October 2: The Defense Budget And Wartime Profiteering
October 2: Israeli General Disagrees
October 2: Anti-war - but what for?
October 2: Why we need to go to war. (Mark Fiore Cartoon)
October 4: A chink in the link
October 4: War is hell, so why are we so hell-bent?
October 5: Is the American empire already over?
October 5: Graham: Expect retaliation
October 5: More than 1.5 million Italians protest a possible war with Iraq
October 6: The war against Iraq has already begun
October 6: The World; Will the Real Saddam Hussein Please Step Down
October 6: Attack May Spark Coup In Iraq, Say U.S. Analysts
October 6: Scramble to carve up Iraqi oil reserves lies behind US diplomacy
October 6: Worth More Than a One-Liner
October 7: Just Asking... by Eric Alterman
October 7: Saddam's inner circle is defecting, say Iraqi exiles
October 7: Military imprecision (Afghanistan)
October 7: On to Baghdad – and beyond
October 7: Petroleum fuels debate on Iraq war
October 7: Byrd Chastises White House, Democrats
October 8: Inspection as invasion
October 8: With Congress Aboard, Bush Targets a Doubtful Public
October 8: Only one Adolf Hitler
October 8: Some administration officials expressing misgivings on Iraq
October 8: White House Global Message
October 8: When Did Iraq Become More Important Than America?
October 8: Waxman Pops The Question
October 9: White House 'exaggerating Iraqi threat'
October 9: Iraq attack likely 'only if provoked'
April 11: Weapons-Grade Plutonium Possibly Found at Iraqi Nuke Complex
May 7: Pearle told investors they could profit from war
May 30: ‘Why Rumsfeld Is Wrong’
September 23: Vision of the neocons stays fixed on making hard choices
October 14: Pentagon official: US may take action against Syria
November 1: Bush's Other War
November 20: War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal
November 21: US hawk admits Iraq war 'illegal'
December 17: Saddam's weapons (View interview here.)
December 28: Bush's man rejects Blair weapon claim
December 28: Attacks Force Retreat From Wide-Ranging Plans for Iraq
December 30: Iraq Arms Hunt May Hinder Other U.S. Aims
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Report: WMD in Iraq: Evidence and Implications
Jan. 8: Powell: No 'smoking gun,' but Iraq war justified
January 9: Rice: No Evidence Iraq Moved WMD to Syria
Jan. 10: Saddam's Ouster Planned In 2001?
January 25: Our Man in Baku
January 25: The 50 lies, exaggerations, distortions and half truths that took this country to war
January 26: Blair, Cheney face no-show-WMD fallout
January 26: Pressure mounts for Iraq elections