Truth from These Podia

At long last I have converted Colonel Sam Gardiner's work from PDF to ordinary text for your viewing pleasure! The entire piece from US News is posted at My Life as a Spamblog. Okay, I'll post a teaser or two here to convince you to go over and read the whole thing.

The United States (and UK) conducted a strategic
influence campaign that:
• …distorted perceptions of the situation both
before and during the conflict.
• …caused misdirection of portions of the military
operation.
• …was irresponsible in parts.
• …might have been illegal in some ways.
• …cost big bucks.
• …will be even more serious in the future.

Colonel Gardiner lists at least fifty ginned up stories that the US and the UK government's used to manipulate public perception about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars while giving us this disclaimer:

I’m not going to address why they did it. That’s something I don’t understand
even after all the research. I would like to ask them, “Why do it?” “Didn’t you know
there would be consequences?’ It was not necessary. You could have told the truth.
You don’t defend democracy by making light of its most basic elements. The American
people would have supported the war. Why do it?

Read it or read it again, just make sure that you read it.