One Angry Man

I'm into my second major non-fiction book in a month. I've been reading Paul William Roberts A War Against Truth: An Intimate Account of the Invasion of Iraq. Roberts is a Canadian journalist who writes for magazines like Harpers. I'd already read his early 90's book The Demonic Comedy:Some Detours in the Iraq of Saddam Hussein, so I knew that Roberts, like no other journalist, had a great deal of interest in the Middle East, not to say insider information and contacts. I also knew that Roberts' writing tended to be anecdotal, laced with irony and black humour, but that underneath it all it would be written with heart. I also knew Roberts to be a very "left wing" commentator and not at all reticent to speak out against the war in Iraq (I think that's clear from his use of "invasion" in the subtitle).

Paul William Roberts has a Masters in literature from Oxford, and I would classify his books as creative non-fiction in that he makes use of many literary references - snippets of poetry from Yeats and Auden; poetry and prose bits from ancient and modern Persians; quotes from authors as far ranging as Mark Twain to Noam Chomsky. But the book, as well as being a personal account, is well researched and documented with many footnoted references.

This is one angry man and one angry book! Writing between March 2003 and 2004, with an "epilogue' written in 2005, Roberts goes so far as to say that George Bush should be impeached for going into Iraq; he calls the Bush administration "mass murderers" for their bombing of civilians; says that they should all be tried for war crimes for their breaking of countless Geneva Convention protocols; warns the people of the United States to wake up to the fact that this war is costing them as taxpayers $431 billion per year; and makes the plea to the world's people that nothing can ever be accomplished by war - ever.