War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death

by Norman Solomon

War Made Easy cuts through the dense web of spin to probe and scrutinize the key "perception management" techniques that have played huge roles in the promotion of American wars in recent decades. This guide to disinformation analyzes American military adventures past and present to reveal striking similarities in the efforts of various administrations to justify, and retain, public support for war. War Made Easy is essential reading. It documents a long series of deliberate misdeeds at the highest levels of power and lays out important guidelines to help readers distinguish a propaganda campaign from actual news reporting. With War Made Easy, every reader can become a savvy media critic and, perhaps, help the nation avoid costly and unnecessary wars.

Genres: Politics, History, War, Nonfiction, The United States Of America, Political Science, American History

324 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2005

About the author

Norman Solomon is an American journalist, media critic, antiwar activist, and former candidate in 2012 for the United States House of Representatives.

Solomon is a longtime associate of the media watch group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR).

In 1997 he founded the Institute for Public Accuracy, which works to provide alternative sources for journalists, and served as its executive director until 2010.

Solomon's weekly column, "Media Beat", was in national syndication from 1992 to 2009.

Reviews

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a feel-good book. As the title implies, the book details many of the times that government officials have lied to the American people in order to gain support for their war plans. It isn't pleasant to think that our leaders lie to us--it seems like something that only happens in other countries--but it is an ugly truth that we should know about.

We already know about many of the lies surrounding the Vietnam war and the recent Iraq war, but the book also details lies surrounding the invasions of Granada and Panama, the bombing of Yugoslavia, and even the Spanish-American War. It outlines a consistent pattern in each of these conflicts. Unfortunately the media and the public fail to learn from past wars and so the pattern continues.

This is not a conspiracy theory book. The book doesn't make any new claims or report anything that hasn't already been reported in the mainstream media. However, because most of the lies were uncovered years after the fact they aren't well-known. The book gives historical perspective to the lies and pays them the attention they deserve.

If we truly strive to be a peaceful nation we need to raise the bar for what constitutes a necessary war. In the past fifty years we have helped overthrow dozens of governments, funded countless terrorist organizations, invaded several countries, and killed thousands or perhaps millions of civilians. We have troops stationed in over 100 countries, are the leading arms dealer in the world, and have a military budget roughly equal to the rest of the world combined. I say "we" but what I should say is "our government." I truly believe that we are a peace-loving people, but unfortunately our government isn't carrying out our wishes and we are mostly ignorant to it.

This book will not entertain you, but I still recommend it because it will open your eyes to the fact that you are being lied to and the media is mostly ignoring it.

[Mitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some books are unpleasant to read, and this is one. It's about war and violent death and deceit carried on at levels of inhumanity almost inconceivable and of course you should make yourself aware of this.

When America goes to war, as it frequently does for extended periods of time, the politicians and generals go into high gear with words like 'patriotism' and phrases like 'supporting our veterans'. But is it either when the reasons behind going to war in the first place are often deceptive and just wrong, as when Bush invaded Iraq with false claims of finding weapons of mass destruction?

Yet such phrases stifle free opinions and speech over and over.

I do think this book is anti-war (or pro-peace) and the author sometimes overstates his case, but overall it's impossible to fault his extensive experience and research into the history and rhetoric that have made and continue to make heinous wars palatable to Americans.

He also makes the point that war is kept at arms length from us even though we see pictures of it over our tv sets. Deaths shown there are as unreal as they are in tv shows; we never feel the anguish of a soldier from some other country who has come as his patriotic duty and killed a child or parent or other loved one right in front of us, then left us to deal with the grief.

"If we really knew war, what war does to minds and bodies, it would be harder to wage."

Therefore, it is often the PR job of the White House to keep that awareness away from the public, with the media's complicity since they very frequently accept the generals' and government's statements as factual. (Even though this has been repeatedly proven not to have been true.)

Our tax money is now being used to support our huge military machine, which is very profitable by the way, at the rate of 1 billion dollars A DAY....and this is in service of an organization whose methods are primarily the destruction of property and people.

This book broke its chapters down by various false aspects of wars waged by America, and in each chapter multiple examples were drawn from Vietnam, Kuwait, Panama, Iraq and so forth. It was a bit difficult to see-saw back and forth like that, but he made his points convincingly.

It's a tough book to read, but it should be.

[Christopher Carbone · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must stress that this book is, basically, “preaching to the converted” insofar as anyone who believes the US goes to war too easily will love it, while those who think “US All the Way” will barely get by the prologue. However, the book has some great insights into how the United States packages its war for mass consumption; how we are usually the aggressor but claim otherwise; how we gather “evidence” and then when its proven wrong pretend like we never meant it in the first place, and how no matter what, once a war starts we tend to become fanatical in our praise for our own aggression.

At the same time, the book can lose you; there is a whole chapter on how our soldiers do terrible things and other chapters on how the US is always wrong (the author implies even in WWII). However, you can get past all this (he is nowhere near as incendiary as Howard Zinn) and overall this is a solid read for anyone who wants to read up on how the US is spectacular at selling war.

[Larry Bassett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely a preaching to the choir book. But I completely enjoyed reading it. I have to remember Vietnam was 45 years ago so it might be a bit over covered here. But the story is probably not familiar to the new generations and it is repeated here fairly well.

[Steven Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

“SNAKE-OIL WARMAKERS”

Mr. Solomon focuses on the techniques used to manipulate citizens into supporting a war. He avoids the historic motivations such as the very real Cold War and the understandable passions for retribution because of 9/11, but the author does point out the numerous hypocrisies in statements made by war advocates. The author also takes to task a mostly lazy compliant American press that simply reported and reports whatever the government spoon-feeds them when it comes to ginning up support for warmongering. I was shocked and saddened at witnessing the speedy rise of jingoism in the public and the press when President George W. Bush and Congress sent us to war in Iraq back in 2003. A strong U.S. military is essential but, jezzum crow, rolling over whenever an administration gets a stiffy for beatin’ the ole war drums shows one of our less admirable American qualities. The press in a democracy is supposed to be a bulwark against snake-oil marketing by politicians and sycophantic pundits. ‘War Made Easy’ argues and cites numerous examples that show otherwise. The author begins his examples with the Johnson Administration advocating and sending us into the dinky Dominican Republic before wading deeper into Vietnam. The book was published in 2005.

While ‘War Made Easy’ is accurate in its analysis, the book came across to me as an angry polemic. Mr. Solomon certainly has a right to present his argument in such a manner and the massive amount of innocent civilians sent over the decades to early graves because of us warrants the reader being ticked off. The author shows that presidents from Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush use snake-oil marketing to get us into war or to finance anti-democratic as well as anti-human-rights governments that were valuable allies in our objectives. Each chapter highlights a specific tactic used. They include such things as depicting ourselves as the pinnacle of moral virtue, fair, and perceived as such by most the world; we are the real victims in whatever altercation we initiate; always claiming what we want is peace right before going to war; constant repetition of lies (propaganda); the government withholding vital information that goes against their war narrative; labeling our enemy as Hitler and Nazis-like; trumpeting human rights when economic and corporate interests are the real motivation in going to war; bypassing Congressional approval in going to war; ignoring or downplaying the massive number of innocent helpless civilians murdered by our engagements; accusing war critics as being unpatriotic and siding with the enemy; divert attention from or prevent pictures of war casualties including flag-draped coffins of U.S. soldiers and deformed injured G.I.s; death and suffering are carefully hidden from public view; the dehumanization of the enemy; refusing to cut and run a.k.a. Vietnam Syndrome; and of course, withdrawal would cripple U.S. credibility.

All governments play fast and footloose with the facts and intentionally deceive the public for their own objectives. ‘War Made Easy’ focuses solely on the U.S. government, especially presidents and their acolytes. The book is an attempt to inform the public on how they have been repeatedly manipulated by ALL administrations and a mostly compliant Congress. Mr. Solomon aptly writes, “Our leaders never lie to us – unless you mean lying by omission, lying with statistics, lying via unsupported claims, or lying with purposeful obfuscation, misleading statements, and succession of little white lies.” Some wars are necessary and just, but not every friggin’ one touted by the grand pooh-bahs falls into that category. ‘War Made Easy’ is a good template to follow when leaders attempt to drag our sorry little derrieres into war.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Painful to begin to unravel the reality behind what the main media and political memes we are exposed to on a regular basis. Not a fun read but worth your time if you can evaluate existing conclusions and how they have been shaped to meet the needs of others.

[Claire Binkley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about how to spot a propaganda campaign and differentiate it from news. No wonder at first I disliked it, since I had just been Marxist-Leninist'ed into last century.

I was thinking I might not want to mention I had this book at all, since I did not like it on face value, but then I decided, I can't fill Goodreads with only my 4- and 5-star adoration reviews if I want to be regarded as an honest reader, as everyone has likes and dislikes. (There's little I can do about my fixations on certain authors.) (Then again, there are one or two five or six books that I had reviewed in the recent past that struck me very badly.)

Then I learned that N. Solomon is the founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. That sounds like something I want to do. So I became more tolerant and amused by this book. So, it is a political book, but you might want to read it with your tongue in your cheek. Funny.

I mean, look at the Table of Contents! 1. America is a Fair and Noble Superpower
2. Our Leaders Will Do Everything They Can to Avoid War
I'm laughing too hard to keep going and write the whole thing out.

Maybe I'll look into some other things by this columnist.

[Mlg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goering once said "The people can always be brought to do the bidding of the leaders" and this book shows how right he was. Taking just the period from the 1960's to the present, Solomon shows how Presidents and the government lie to the people and manipulate the data in order to get the country to go to war. Newspapers are also complicit, parroting administration lies instead of doing real, investigative journalism. They assist in downplaying the realities of war calling civilian casualties "collateral damage" instead of showing the real horrors of bombing innocent people. We no longer are allowed to see coffins returning from war, because that might turn the country against it. "Body counts are no longer kept, because it might upset the populace. War is now waged like a video game, using drones from places far away.
This is a book that should be read by every American and sent to every editor of a major newspaper in this country. The manipulation of the public is way worse than anyone imagines.

[Bob Hochstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really laid it out and spelled out how sometimes President in conjunction with the media and Congress put their spin when it comes to going to war. It clearly shows that when a President is bound and determined to go to war for various reasons, that there is nothing stopping them unless the key advisors and members of Congress raise enough questions.

[nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good solid read about how the Media and the U.S government come together to sell the american people wars.
Go to you tube and type in war made easy part 2..an excellent little video there.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because of our leaders and pundits propensity to lie we have a problem: When nothing need be proven, then no war need be justified, ahead of time or later on. Power is a great aphrodisiac.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful, well-written tour of the pattern of presidential war deceptions over the past few decades. If you can't read the book get the film documentary with the same name.