WAR MADE INVISIBLE

The role of government and media in concealing the consequences of war.

With formidable clarity, Solomon, the executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy and author of War Made Easy, documents how the so-called war on terror has spawned an endless and secretive program of foreign interventions. The author is particularly eloquent in explaining how the media’s exclusive focus on past and potential “American suffering” in framing such activities has meant that “there [isn’t] much room to see or care about the suffering of others, even if—or especially if—it was caused by the United States.” Solomon points out that this pattern of selective moral attention accompanies a widespread ignorance of the actual policies being carried out by the American military and its numerous contractors. Particularly persuasive are the author’s illustrations of how media outlets have been coopted into producing what is essentially war propaganda and how journalists who seek to question the honesty of government officials are routinely silenced. Solomon makes a striking comparison between the American media’s strong interest in the losses endured by Ukrainian civilians after the recent Russian invasion and its indifference to the fate of Iraqi civilians after America’s invasion in 2003. As such, it should be no wonder how fantasies of an incorruptible national innocence—or what the author memorably dubs “the standard Manichean autopilot of American thought”—have been perpetuated. Solomon may have offered a somewhat deeper analysis of why American journalism fails to live up to its ideals in reporting on war and the reasons why political leaders might feel compelled to traffic in deception when addressing the public. Nonetheless, the author presents an incisive and provocative overview of the consequences of the media’s appalling failures in making important truths known.

A powerful, necessary indictment of efforts to disguise the human toll of American foreign policy.