Now They Tell Us

Overall I thought weeks reading assignment was an excellent choice. As a design student I thought I should comment first on it by saying that I really enjoyed the publisher’s work on it and found it to be very approachable and reflective of the subject matter. I believe if this book had caught my eye while browsing through a bookstore, I would have probably bought it. 

I really enjoyed this book because all that was written was relevant, made sense, and was well researched and thought out. The book really brought light to the subject and offered a great amount of cited information. If this book had more publicity I believe it would really change minds on the subject of the war in Iraq. 

During the beginning of the war I must admit that I was not well informed about the war, the Bush Administration, and many of the current events of the time. I had known about the claims of  WMD’s and the fact that they had not found any, but I never looked deeper into the subject. I was extremely surprised that many of the claims had come from the New York Times article by Judith Miller. I especially enjoyed the essay Now They Tell Us and felt that it really exposed problems in the media and the great power that they hold.(Power being shown when Rush Limbaugh was branding people as traitors.) Massing’s essay had really showed the power of words and the misuse of them. 

It is quite surprising that people had taken the claims of  WMD’s in Iraq with little hard evidence, and the fact that the administration had taken advantage of it. The government should have analyzed the information they had on the pipes and the conflicting views presented by scientists of what they could have been used for.