{"id":18120,"date":"2023-03-23T08:32:49","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T12:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=18120"},"modified":"2023-03-23T08:33:41","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T12:33:41","slug":"was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/23\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Was the Iraq War the Biggest Con of the 21st Century?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>

copyright James Bovard 2007<\/p><\/div>\n

Was the Iraq War the Biggest Con of the 21st Century?<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

by Jim Bovard<\/a><\/span> | Mar 23, 2023<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Iraq War was spawned by a deadly combination of political depravity and media complicity. Unfortunately, on the twentieth anniversary of the war, both elements of that conspiracy are being whitewashed.<\/strong>\u00a0 <\/span>Instead, politicians and their pundit accomplices are prattling as if the Iraq war was a well-intentioned mistake, not a crime against humanity.<\/p>\n

In the days after 9\/11, when pollsters asked Americans who they thought had carried out the 9\/11 attacks, only 3 percent of respondents suggested Iraq or Saddam Hussein as culprits. But President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney worked ceaselessly to convince Americans that Saddam was the 9\/11 culprit. Official propaganda trumpeting the Saddam\/al-Qaeda link was the linchpin for exploiting 9\/11 to justify war. A February 2003 poll found that 72 percent of Americans believed that Saddam was \u201cpersonally involved in the September 11 attacks.\u201d Shortly before the March 2003 invasion, almost half of all Americans believed that \u201cmost\u201d or \u201csome\u201d of the 9\/11 hijackers were Iraqi citizens. Only 17 percent of respondents knew that none of the hijackers was Iraqi.<\/p>\n

In his official notification of invasion sent to Congress (in lieu of a declaration of war) on March 18, 2003, Bush declared that he was attacking Iraq \u201cto take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.\u201d Bush tied Saddam to 9\/11 even though confidential briefings he received informed him that no evidence of any link had been found. Three years after the war started, Bush publicly admitted that Saddam had nothing to do with 9\/11.<\/p>\n

On March 17, 2003, Bush also justified invading Iraq by invoking UN resolutions purportedly authorizing the U.S. \u201cto use force in ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction.<\/span><\/a>\u201d In a speech giving Saddam 48 hours to abdicate power, Bush declared, \u201cIntelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.\u201d In the weeks and months after the fall of Baghdad, Bush repeatedly asserted that U.S. forces had discovered WMDs or that Saddam had weapons programs. \u201cWe found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories,\u201d Bush declared to journalists on May 29, 2003. Five weeks later, he again claimed vindication because \u201cwe found a biological lab\u201d in a truck trailer. However, CIA investigators concluded that the trailer had nothing to do with an Iraqi WMD program. False claims by the Bush administration on Saddam seeking uranium in Niger sparked an uproar and leaks seeking to destroy the former ambassador who exposed the sham.<\/p>\n

In June 2003, Bush repeatedly denounced \u201crevisionist historians\u201d who kept asking about the missing WMDs. In a November 12, 2003 interview with the BBC\u2019s David Frost, Bush declared that he had sent a team to Iraq \u201cto find the weapons or the intent of weapons.\u201d Bush did not reveal how he defined \u201cthe intent of weapons.\u201d The following month, Bush told ABC News that the war was justified because there was \u201cthe possibility that [Saddam] could acquire weapons.\u201d In January 2004, David Kay\u2014the man Bush chose to head the search for WMDs in Iraq\u2014testified to Congress that \u201cwe were almost all wrong,\u201d as far as Iraq possessing WMDs. Kay\u2019s testimony demolished one of the prime pretexts for the war.<\/p>\n

Bush responded by portraying the lack of evidence as proof of his courage. On February 8, 2004, Bush justified invading Iraq because Saddam \u201chad the ability to make weapons at the very minimum.\u201d This is like justifying a violent no-knock raid on someone\u2019s house because they could have purchased gunpowder and tin cans.<\/p>\n

In a March 2, 2004 speech to Homeland Security Department employees, Bush offered a new justification for invading Iraq: \u201cAmerica will not allow terrorists and outlaw regimes to threaten our Nation and the world with the world\u2019s most dangerous technologies.<\/i>\u201d The mere suspicion that a nation might have \u201cdangerous technologies\u201d justified devastating their land.<\/p>\n

But what did George W. Bush really think? That mystery was solved a few weeks later at the annual Washington dinner for the Radio and Television Correspondents Association. Bush performed a skit featuring slides showing him crawling around the Oval Office peeking behind curtains. Bush quipped<\/span><\/a> to the poohbah attendees: \u201cThose weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere\u2026Nope, no weapons over there\u2026Maybe under here?\u201d The crowd loved it and The<\/em> Washington Post<\/i> headlined its report on the evening: \u201cGeorge Bush, Entertainer in Chief<\/span><\/a>.\u201d Greg Mitchell, the editor of Editor & Publisher<\/em>, labeled<\/span><\/a> the performance and the press\u2019s reaction that night as \u201cone of the most shameful episodes in the recent history of the American media and presidency.\u201d By the time of Bush\u2019s performance, hundreds of American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians had already been killed.<\/p>\n

Most of the media had embedded themselves for the Iraq war long before that dinner. The Washington Post<\/em> buried pre-war articles questioning the Bush team\u2019s shams on Iraq; their award-winning Pentagon correspondent Thomas Ricks complained<\/span><\/a>, \u201cThere was an attitude among editors: \u2018Look, we\u2019re going to war, why do we even worry about all this contrary stuff?\u2019\u201d Instead, before the war started, the Post<\/em> ran 27 editorials in favor of invasion<\/span><\/a> and 140 front-page articles supporting the Bush administration\u2019s case for attacking Saddam. PBS\u2019s Bill Moyers noted that \u201cof the 414 Iraq stories broadcast on NBC, ABC and CBS nightly news, from September 2002 until February 2003, almost all the stories could be traced back to sources from the White House, the Pentagon, and the State Department.\u201d Jim Lehrer, the host of government-subsidized PBS Newshour<\/em>, explained his timidity in 2004: \u201cIt would have been difficult to have had debates [about invading Iraq]\u2026you\u2019d have had to have gone against the grain.\u201d Lehrer\u2019s admission did not disgrace him since groveling to officialdom is the job description for Washington journalists.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his 1971 opinion on the Pentagon Papers case, Justice Hugo Black declared that a free press has \u201cthe duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.\u201d But during the Iraq War, most of the media preferred to trumpet official lies instead of exposing them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A 2005 American University survey of hundreds of journalists who covered Iraq concluded: \u201cMany media outlets have self-censored their reporting on the conflict in Iraq because of concern about public reaction to graphic images and details about the war.\u201d Individual journalists commented:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIn general, coverage downplayed civilian casualties and promoted a pro-U.S. viewpoint. No U.S. media show abuses by U.S. military carried out on regular basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFriendly fire incidents were to show only injured Americans, and no reference made to possible mistakes involving civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real damage of the war on the civilian population was uniformly omitted.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The media sugarcoated the war and almost always refused to publish photos incriminating the U.S. military. The<\/em> Washington Post <\/i>received a leak of thousands of pages of confidential records on the 2005 massacre at Haditha, including stunning photos taken immediately after Marines killed 24 civilians (mostly women and children). Though the Post<\/i> headlined its exclusive story, \u201cMarines\u2019 Photos Provide Graphic Evidence in Haditha Probe,\u201d the article noted that \u201cPost<\/em> editors decided that most of the images are too graphic to publish.\u201d The Post<\/i> suppressed the evidence at the same time it continued deferentially reporting official denials that U.S. troops committed atrocities.<\/p>\n

In 2007, two Apache helicopters targeted a group of men in Baghdad with 30 mm. cannons and killed kill up to 18<\/span><\/a> people. Video from the helicopter revealed one helicopter crew \u201claughing at some<\/span><\/a> of the casualties, all of whom were civilians, including two Reuters<\/span><\/a> journalists.\u201d \u201cLight \u2019em all up. Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards,\u201d one guy on the recording declared. Army Corporal Chelsea Manning leaked the video to Wikileaks, which disclosed it in 2010. Wikileaks declared on Twitter: \u201cWashington Post<\/span><\/a><\/em> had Collateral Murder video for over a year but DID NOT RELEASE IT to the public.\u201d Wikileaks also disclosed thousands of official documents exposing U.S. war crimes and abuses, tacitly damning American media outlets that chose to ignore or shroud atrocities.<\/p>\n

In 2007, Fox News talk show host Bill O\u2019Reilly declared that at the beginning of the war in Iraq, \u201ceverybody in the country [was] behind it, except the kooks.\u201d The \u201ckooks\u201d included UN weapons inspectors, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and many foreign governments. The \u201ckook\u201d label was also attached to Antiwar.com, The American Conservative<\/em>, Counterpunch, the Future of Freedom Foundation, and an array of individual journalists who often found closed doors to their submissions. Likewise, the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of protestors who took to the streets of American cities to oppose the war were redefined into a laughingstock.<\/p>\n

In his rush to war, President Bush showed boundless bad faith\u2014followed by boundless righteousness after his lies were exposed.<\/strong> By the summer of 2008, only 22 percent <\/span><\/a>of Americans approved of Bush and 41 percent<\/span><\/a> said he was the \u201cworst president ever.\u201d But the same media outlets that championed the Iraq War helped resurrect Bush\u2019s public image a decade later. Bush was exalted like the second coming of George Washington for his slams<\/span><\/a> against the Trump administration. By early 2018,\u00a0 <\/span>a poll showed that 61 percent of Americans approved of Bush<\/span><\/a>, and his support among Democrats quintupled, from 11 percent in early 2009 to 54 percent now. The key to Bush\u2019s rehabilitation was burying his Iraq War record in the Memory Hole.<\/p>\n

The media played the same trick to expunge its own tawdry Iraq record. Four years ago, The Washington Post<\/em> spent a king\u2019s ransom to produce and run a Super Bowl ad <\/span><\/a> on its \u201cDemocracy Dies in the Darkness\u201d motto. At that time, the Post<\/em> was whipping up RussiaGate hysteria and reaping torrents of new subscribers. The Super Bowl ad, a paean to reporters, declared, \u201cWhen we go off to war\u2026knowing keeps us free.\u201d<\/p>\n

But kowtowing leaves people dead.<\/strong> Twenty years after the start of the Iraq War, President Biden is dragging America deeper into a foreign conflict that could spiral into World War III. Most of the mainstream media is again parroting whatever the U.S. government or its foreign lackeys say about the Russia-Ukraine conflict.<\/p>\n

Lies are political weapons of mass destruction, obliterating all limits on government power. The Iraq War should have taught Americans not to trust presidents or pundits who seek to unleash mass carnage. But don\u2019t trust the Washington elite to ever learn or admit that lesson.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Was the Iraq War the Biggest Con of the 21st Century? by Jim Bovard | Mar 23, 2023 The Iraq War was spawned by a deadly combination of political depravity and media complicity. Unfortunately, on the twentieth anniversary of the war, both elements of that conspiracy are being whitewashed.\u00a0 Instead, politicians and their pundit accomplices […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1326,2867,464,2124,1055,2178,1688,195,1564,36,1566,988,946,2229,368,923,1849,1101,24,1107,833,3642,285,3641],"class_list":["post-18120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-al-qaeda","tag-assange","tag-atrocities","tag-biden","tag-bill-oreilly","tag-chelsea-manning","tag-dick-cheney","tag-george-bush","tag-hugo-black","tag-iraq","tag-jim-lehrer","tag-libertarian-institute","tag-media","tag-pbs","tag-pentagon-papers","tag-russia","tag-saddam-hussein","tag-servility","tag-supreme-court","tag-ukraine","tag-washington-post","tag-weapons-of-mass-destruction","tag-wikileaks","tag-wmd"],"yoast_head":"\nWas the Iraq War the Biggest Con of the 21st Century? - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Iraq War was spawned by a deadly combination of political depravity and media complicit - a conspiracy that is being whitewashed.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/23\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Was the Iraq War the Biggest Con of the 21st Century? - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Iraq War was spawned by a deadly combination of political depravity and media complicit - a conspiracy that is being whitewashed.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/23\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-23T12:32:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-23T12:33:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/372902517_27de71ddee_c.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"598\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/23\\\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/23\\\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"Was the Iraq War the Biggest Con of the 21st Century?\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-23T12:32:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-23T12:33:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/23\\\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1790,\"commentCount\":1,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/23\\\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/372902517_27de71ddee_c.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Al-Qaeda\",\"Assange\",\"atrocities\",\"Biden\",\"Bill O'Reilly\",\"Chelsea Manning\",\"Dick Cheney\",\"george bush\",\"Hugo Black\",\"Iraq\",\"Jim Lehrer\",\"Libertarian Institute\",\"media\",\"PBS\",\"pentagon papers\",\"Russia\",\"Saddam Hussein\",\"servility\",\"Supreme Court\",\"Ukraine\",\"Washington Post\",\"Weapons of Mass Destruction\",\"WikiLeaks\",\"WMD\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/23\\\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/23\\\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/23\\\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\\\/\",\"name\":\"Was the Iraq War the Biggest Con of the 21st Century? - James Bovard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/23\\\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/23\\\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/372902517_27de71ddee_c.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-23T12:32:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-23T12:33:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"description\":\"The Iraq War was spawned by a deadly combination of political depravity and media complicit - a conspiracy that is being whitewashed.\u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/23\\\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/23\\\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/23\\\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/372902517_27de71ddee_c.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/372902517_27de71ddee_c.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":598},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2023\\\/03\\\/23\\\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Was the Iraq War the Biggest Con of the 21st Century?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/jim.bovard\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/jimbovard\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Was the Iraq War the Biggest Con of the 21st Century? - James Bovard","description":"The Iraq War was spawned by a deadly combination of political depravity and media complicit - a conspiracy that is being whitewashed.\u00a0","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/23\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Was the Iraq War the Biggest Con of the 21st Century? - James Bovard","og_description":"The Iraq War was spawned by a deadly combination of political depravity and media complicit - a conspiracy that is being whitewashed.\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/23\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2023-03-23T12:32:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-03-23T12:33:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":598,"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/372902517_27de71ddee_c.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"9 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/23\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/23\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"Was the Iraq War the Biggest Con of the 21st Century?","datePublished":"2023-03-23T12:32:49+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-23T12:33:41+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/23\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\/"},"wordCount":1790,"commentCount":1,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/23\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/372902517_27de71ddee_c.jpg","keywords":["Al-Qaeda","Assange","atrocities","Biden","Bill O'Reilly","Chelsea Manning","Dick Cheney","george bush","Hugo Black","Iraq","Jim Lehrer","Libertarian Institute","media","PBS","pentagon papers","Russia","Saddam Hussein","servility","Supreme Court","Ukraine","Washington Post","Weapons of Mass Destruction","WikiLeaks","WMD"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/23\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/23\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/23\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\/","name":"Was the Iraq War the Biggest Con of the 21st Century? - James Bovard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/23\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/23\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/372902517_27de71ddee_c.jpg","datePublished":"2023-03-23T12:32:49+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-23T12:33:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"description":"The Iraq War was spawned by a deadly combination of political depravity and media complicit - a conspiracy that is being whitewashed.\u00a0","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/23\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/23\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/23\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/372902517_27de71ddee_c.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/372902517_27de71ddee_c.jpg","width":800,"height":598},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/23\/was-the-iraq-war-the-biggest-con-of-the-21st-century\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Was the Iraq War the Biggest Con of the 21st Century?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18120"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18132,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18120\/revisions\/18132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}