THE UNITED STATES AND IRAQ - A MODERN HISTORY
Author Stephen Kaposi believes that any real “war on terror” would see the world fight America and the Bush administration for the great crimes it has inflicted on Iraq. In his latest work, The United and Iraq: A Modern History, he collects all his writings on Iraq to the end of November 2004 into one collection to present one version of Iraq’s recent history. It is a history that is very sobering and sad and shows what one powerful country can do to a lessor nation that is of no threat when higher international geopolitical goals and oil are involved. The author notes that if an “official” terrorist did in an American, Australian or British city just a fraction of what America did in Iraq, it would be considered a major disaster receiving huge media coverage, condemnation, and endless debate of the “threat of terrorism”. But in Iraq, it’s whitewashed by propaganda that speaks of “progress” towards a “better” future. The United States and Iraq ranges from discussing Iraq under Saddam Hussein and the 1991 Gulf War, to how Iraq’s population suffered under UN sanctions and the deadly aftermaths caused by depleted uranium, to the terrorist attack that was the American invasion and its aftermath. Iraq’s suffering will likely continue until America withdraws but at least The United Sates and Iraq rescues the real historical narrative from a media and government establishment that seeks to suppress the truth.	In Store Price: $AU28.00  Online Price:   $AU27.00 ISBN: 1-9210-0548-3 Format: Paperback Number of pages: 391 Genre: Non Fiction
Author: Stephen Kaposi  Imprint: Poseidon Publisher: Poseidon Books Date Published: 2005 Language: English

The United States and Iraq: A Modern History is a special compilation book that brings together all the author’s writings on Iraq up to the end of November 2004. The intention of this book is to present one version of Iraq’s recent history in one complete narrative for ease of reference, from an anti-war point of view. Iraq has been a country that has been in the headlines for so long now, and been made so infamous thanks to America’s often-unwarranted obsession with it. Chapters One and Two reproduces Chapters Five and Six from the author’s book, The New World Order: Project for the New American Empire. Chapter Three reproduces Chapter One from the author’s last book, The Real Axis of Evil: The Invasion of Iraq, Western Imperialism, Lies and the Police State. Chapters Four and Five are compilations of the author’s articles about Iraq written over the past year between September 2003 and November 2004. These chapters present an account of Iraq right from the Saddam Hussein era, through the 1991 Gulf War, the UN sanctions of the 1990’s, the invasion of March 2003 and the post-invasion occupation period. The Introduction presents an overview of the recent situation in Iraq, dated to the end of November 2004, and in itself represents the latest major essay by the author on the subject of Iraq consisting entirely of new work.

 Chapter One          The American Aggression Against Iraq (up to December 2002)

Chapter One gives an outline of the catastrophe suffered by Iraq over the years at the hands of America and explains why the “threat” from Iraq was purely propaganda based on lies, allegations and exaggerations. The intention will be to show people, especially those who may have supported the invasion of Iraq, why it was wrong and why it should have been opposed. It also shows why the “weapons of mass destruction” issue was merely an American excuse for it to achieve its greater goals. It also shows how from mid-2002, people became slowly convinced by the American propaganda campaign helped nicely by an unquestioning media, that there was some “crisis” to be solved over Iraq. Selected highlights and new information in this chapter include:

·        An overview and history of Iraq in recent times, including the sanctions era.

·        Provides an overview of the American propaganda campaign launched in mid-2002 to secure public support for war against Iraq, drawing on the officially published words of American leaders.

·        Provides examples of prominent people and organizations, including American Congress people, who opposed America’s campaign against Iraq.

·        Reviews the major reports on Iraq’s alleged weapons released by America and Britain and their intelligence services, to show their dubiousness, and reiterates the fact that its weapons and programs were virtually eliminated by 1998.

·        Explains how America duped the members of the Security Council to pass Resolution 1441 against Iraq in November 2002, and then immediately set about undermining the resolution’s intent and the Security Council’s will.

·        Shows how America and Europe supplied Iraq with its “weapons of mass destruction” during the 1980’s.

·        Offers some perspective to the simple notion pushed by America that Saddam Hussein “brutalised” and “repressed” the population, and in fact used oil revenues to create a first world economy with excellent social services that were the envy of the Middle East.

·        Explains how the West have allowed Turkey to repress its Kurds, while acting the exact opposite to Iraq and its Kurds, and points out that the Iraqi Kurds have been encouraged to rebel with weapons and funding supplied by America and Iran over the decades.

·        Shows clearly for the first time in a mainstream work (as far as this author is aware) the apparent lie that is the main example of propaganda used against Iraq – the massacre at Halabjah in 1988 that was said to have killed 5 000 Kurds.

Chapter Two Iraq: The Situation up to the American Invasion (March 2003) 

Chapter Two is the “sequel” to the first Iraq chapter described above. It updates the situation with Iraq up until the American invasion of that country and can be presented as the reasons why the war was wrong and unjustified. The chapter thoroughly reviews the work of the United Nations inspectors, the American allegations and the push for a Security Council resolution “authorising” war to show that nothing justified the American invasion of Iraq. This chapter is dated to the start of the American invasion, and news reports to date have begun to confirm it, i.e. doubts about the allegations and intelligence reports. This only confirms the importance of the work, to show people who may have supported the war, that there was enough information beforehand to have seriously doubted the allegations. Selected highlights and new information in this chapter include: 

• Provides a detailed look at the reports of the United Nations weapons inspectors and compares them to the main allegations produced by America and Britain, to show that there was no real basis to the allegations against Iraq. The chapter demonstrates, using direct quotes from American and British intelligence reports, and their leader’s words, that the allegations against Iraq were, at the worst, fabricated lies, and at the best, simply false and exaggerated. The chapter is, as far as this author is aware, one of the first thorough reviews of the whole situation concerning the work of the inspectors and the allegations made by America and Britain.
• Shows how Bush’s National Security Adviser led and manipulated chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix.
• Shows how Hans Blix’s reports to the Security Council were misrepresented by America, particularly the report of 27 January 2003. This misrepresentation was repeated by the media with little counter-argument, and provided America with a propaganda coup in their attempt to gain public support. This chapter also shows how Blix changes his tune after this to dispel the notion he was giving America too much “ammunition” to further their campaign.
• Shows how the American rhetoric on Iraq’s weapons was toned down through January to March 2003, as the inspectors revealed the truth in Iraq – to this author’s knowledge, a point not noted by anyone in the media or elsewhere.
• Shows how our leaders shamelessly declared to have wanted “peace”, while demanding the Security Council authorise a war they had every intention of launching.
• Shows the weakness of the excuse that the war was justified on “human rights” grounds, in that it was made clear the weapons issue was the reason for the war. 

Chapter Three          The Invasion of Iraq: March – September 2003 

Chapter Three discusses in detail the American invasion of Iraq. The chapter tries to convey the reality of the invasion in terms of the enormous destruction and human suffering that it caused, and which the major Western media outlets tried to cover up and sanitise from their coverage. It also discusses the aftermath of the invasion up until September 2003 when America’s downward slide to disaster had already become clear. The chapter shows how the brutality of the US forces stirred resentment and resistance almost immediately and kick-started the resistance. Selected highlights and new information in this chapter include:

• How events that for all intents and purposes were equivalent to terrorist attacks, including September 11, were presented by the media in a matter of fact way without any comment or irony.
• Discusses the speeches George Bush in the lead up to the invasion to show how disingenuous and hypocritical his words were.
• Shows that the real reason for “disarming” Iraq was to make the American invasion easier, especially in relation to the Al Samoud 2 missiles.
• Documents how the US military spoke of “minimising” civilian casualties while simultaneously slaughtering civilians.
• Shows how the Iraqis were demonised to justify civilian deaths
• Shows how the media presented a superficial, sanitised coverage that suppressed human suffering, and minimised the humanitarian situation, while cheerleading for America and Britain.
• Continues to document the weapons of mass destruction lie and how the media kept the non-existent story alive.
• Documents a number of stories almost ignored by the media, including ethnic cleansing of Arabs by Kurds.
• The comparison between America’s quagmire-like situation in Iraq to the campaigns of the German army in World War Two and the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980’s is noted – a parallel history ignored by a largely pro-war mainstream media.

Chapter Four  Iraq Aftermath: September 2003 – March 2004

Chapter Four presents the author’s articles on Iraq written between September 2003 and March 2004. The period after the invasion of Iraq and up until the calamitous events of April 2004 is crucial in how it shows the slow decline of America’s fortunes in Iraq. Selected highlights and new information in this chapter include:

·        Shows how people were duped into supporting the war by America’s slick pre-invasion propaganda.

·        Documents America’s continued slide into chaos and increasing resistance to their rule.

·        Shows how the US occupation maintains control of the country just as surely as Saddam Hussein did.

·        Continues to document the collapse of the weapons of mass destruction “evidence” that was put forward in the pre-invasion period to justify the war.

·        Shows how the resistance to occupation is not confined to the so-called “Sunni triangle” as the US and the media kept saying.

Chapter Five   Iraq Aftermath: April – November 2004

Chapter Five presents the author’s articles on Iraq written between April and November 2004. The period from April 2004 saw an explosion of resistance to the foreign occupation, after a simmering situation beforehand. This period would reveal America’s tactics like never before – increasing repression and killing to maintain “control” of a population and keep its puppet regime in power. Selected highlights and new information in this chapter include:

• Documents the escalating disaster America has created in Iraq, especially once the major uprising of April 2004 erupted.
• Details the enormous suffering and destruction experienced by the city of Fallujah - a city that simply rejected the control of a foreign occupation force.
• Shows how the resistance to occupation spread to the Shiite population and the Shiite dominated south of Iraq.
• Documents the abuse and torture of Iraqis and shows how it flies in the face of the Bush administration’s high-sounding principles of its supposed opposition to torture and its “commitment” to its worldwide elimination.
• Reveals further how the media perpetrates myths and repeats US military announcements as if they are facts to present a false image of events in Iraq.
• Reveals how the “national conference” that elected an Iraqi legislature in August 2004 was a rigged sham - a scoop by the French Agence France-Presse that was almost totally ignored by the rest of the media.

Previous books by Stephen Kaposi:

The New World Order: Project for the New American Empire

The Real Axis of Evil: The Invasion of Iraq, Western Imperialism, Lies and the Police State

About the author: 

Stephen Kaposi has studied world events for a number of years and is driven by what he believes is the danger of the Bush administration’s war making and its response to September 11. He has been motivated to publish important and unique perspectives on current events and The United States and Iraq: A Modern History continues his work. The author has published over 150 articles on the Internet arguing against American foreign policy and related subjects. He resides in Sydney, Australia.

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