Mark Thiel

I am a scholar and historian writing and studying how the second Bush administration manipulated public opinion to take the United States to war with Iraq.

It has been 10 long years since "Shock and Awe" – the opening bombardment of Baghdad – 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. We have articles about the war with Iraq, books, and the British commission and US Senate reports have catalogued the extent to which intelligence was misused to mislead the public to go to war with Iraq.

For nearly a year prior to the invasion of Iraq, President Bush and his administration peppered the airwaves with serious accusations against Saddam Hussein, including claims of aluminum tubes that could be used in centrifuges to enrich uranium.