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

by Norman Solomon (Author)

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.

Back Jacket

A sobering and essential book that Americans should read, share, and discuss.
--JOHN STAUBER, coauthor of "Weapons of Mass Deception"

You've heard it all before, and you will no doubt hear it again. "Our leaders will do everything they can to avoid war." "They attacked us." "Our enemy is a modern-day Hitler." "This is all about human rights." And, at some point after these and other pronouncements had echoed through the media for weeks or months, American troops marched into Vietnam, Panama, or Iraq.

In "War Made Easy," Norman Solomon 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. In addition to documenting a long series of deliberate misdeeds at the highest levels of power, it lays out important guidelines to help us distinguish elements in a propaganda campaign from actual news reporting. By following these simple suggestions, every citizen can become a savvy media critic and, perhaps, help the nation avoid the next costly and unnecessary war.

"An engaging book that helps explain how the myth-making machine works."
--"The Texas Observer"

"If you want to help prevent another war (Iran? Syria?), read War Made Easy now. This is a stop-the-presses book filled with mind-blowing facts about Washington's warmongers who keep the Pentagon budget rising."
--JIM HIGHTOWER, author of "Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush"

"A definitive historical text . . . an indispensable record of the real relationships among government authorities and media outlets."
--"The Humanist"

"Our media has a history of enabling Washington's foreign misadventures. Perhaps if enough people read--and act on--this book, it won't be so easy next time."
--MARK HERTSGAARD, author of "On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency"

Author Biography

NORMAN SOLOMON is a nationally syndicated columnist and the Executive Director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He has appeared on many television and radio news programs and is the coauthor of Target "Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You."