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The reader's reaction to this book, unfortunately, it likely to be based entirely on politics and not on the merit of the work. Those still defending the Iraq War will hate it, those who oppose it will be more favorable. The latter of course, are split into those arguing that we shouldn't have gotten into it, but its our baby now, and those who believe in leaving as soon as possible. Still, it is a pity to ignore it, even if one doesn't agree. It is a thought-provoking look at how our society functions, and an interesting case study in journalism.

Greg Mitchell is the editor of Editor & Publisher, a journal for the news industry. He was skeptical of the war from the start, and wrote pieces urging his colleagues to examine the issues and claims more closely before giving their support. Since that time, he has written a large number of pieces critiquing their efforts, or lack thereof. This book gathers a number of works together, dating up to October 2007, with explanatory notes about the situation in which they were written. I found them to be mostly excellent.

I have a few criticisms. I think that the explanatory notes should have been a bit more detailed. He refers to the Jessica Lynch episode, with little explanation. I have to admit that, although I am rather poorly informed, I do not what he is talking about. But do the third of the population who still think that the 9/11 terrorists were Iraq? What about people reading this in a few years? Perhaps Mitchell is only concerned with moving people now, and is not concerned with posterity. I think that he should be. His book would make an interesting text for future students of journalism. An index would also be nice, but would, of course, have delayed publication of this very timely work.

I would recommend this for anyone concerned about the war, or with the function of journalism in our society. ( )