Mike Freed

Michael Freed studies how Western democracies, most notably the United States, make the decision to go to war. He has focused on Vietnam and the second Iraq war- the propaganda, arguments, and even lies Presidents and government make.

It has been 10 long years since "Shock and Awe" – lit up the skies above the Tigris. A decade later, we know far more about the case the Bush administration made to the world to justify its war to overthrow Saddam Hussein. US Senate reports have catalogued the extent to which intelligence was misused to mislead the public.

For nearly a year prior to the invasion, President Bush and his administration peppered the airwaves with serious accusations against Saddam Hussein, including claims of aluminum tubes that could be used to enrich uranium/. The intelligence supporting the claims was either not believed or was highly disputed by the experts, with only a handful of journalists and dissenters questioining the claims. But that did not stop senior government officials from repeating them incessantly; nor did it prevent the powerful neoconservative ideologues who were the war's most fervent supporters from parroting them.