Book Review: "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder"

Interested by the premise of the book "The Prosecution of George Bush for Murder" given the prolific nature of the author (Bugliosi being the prosecutor of Charles Manson), I decided to read and review it.

The book is broken down into two main sections, the first being the rational of why we should prosecute Bush, and the second being the logistics and legal framework of an actual prosecution of Bush. While the book essentially lays out the rational that Bush should be held accountable for his actions, and that it is legally feasible for him to be prosecuted by any district attorney in any county where a soldier has been killed while serving in the Iraq War, the book bases itself on the conviction that Bush knowingly misled the American people and Congress into a war.

The author spends the first hundred pages of the book, with what amounts to little more than personal attacks upon the Bush Administration and desperate emotional pleas such as, "can you imagine if it was your son who was killed in Iraq and came home 'unviewable' in a box? Yes, your son Scott, or Paul, or Michael, or Ronnie, Todd, Peter, Marty Sean, or Bobby" (Bugliosi, 31). It is exceedingly ironic that an author who is writing a book for the express purpose of exposing what he believes to be a deception of the
American people based on emotion and fear inspiring remarks about the possibility of an attack by Iraq on American soil, would use the same emotional/fear based remarks time and time again to try to sway people into thinking with their heart rather than their brain.

f we can for a moment pass over the first half of the book, and focus on the second half (the part that is actually interesting and novel) I found Bugliosi in his prime. In reading I focused much more on the case against Bush rather than the very detailed legal framework and basis for such a case. Bugliosi portrays a startling case, that I felt I needed to cross reference (given the at times less than objective nature of the author's writing). One of the most interesting points the Bugliosi makes in presenting evidence that George Bush purposely misled the nation into war, comes in his analysis of the previously top secret NIC's report entitled "Iraq's Continuing Programs for Weapons of Mass Destruction" and what has become know as the White Paper (the "abridged" version of this document which was released to Congress and the general public in the weeks preceding the decision to go to war).

Below are links to both of these originial documents...I have gone through the original NIC document, deleted all completely censored pages and commented on areas of interest. The White Papers are left in their original form. Skim both documents and it quickly becomes apparent that their are substantive differences in the phrasing as well as the inclusion of dissenting opinions.

While George Bush will never end up in an American courtroom being prosecuted for murder, Vincent Bugliosi's book does do an exceptional job of building a case, based on original documents, for the conviction that the Bush Administration intentionally misled the American people into a war in Iraq. "Iraq's Continuing Programs for Weapons of Mass Destruction": The originally classified NIC report. The White Paper: The abridged version of the NIC report released to the American public.