John R. MacArthur On Iraq: "We're Seeing a Lot of Self-Censorship"

As the war in Iraq completes its fifth year this week, The Huffington Post is featuring interviews with and essays by those journalists, elected officials, policymakers and former military officials who spoke out early and boldly against what they saw as an inevitable disaster. They join our Iraq Honor Roll.

John R. MacArthur: "We're Seeing a Lot of Self-Censorship"
Harper's Publisher Says Media as Timid as Democrats On Iraq

By Marc Cooper

John "Rick" MacArthur, publisher and president of Harper's magazine, was an early critic of the drive to invade Iraq, arguing on the eve of war that the White House was engaging in "Orwellian" manipulation of public opinion. Indeed, MacArthur, back in 1992, had penned a scathing critique of the media's lack of skepticism regarding the first war in Iraq, titled Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the 1991 Gulf War. He's also the author of The Selling of "Free Trade": NAFTA, Washington, and the Subversion of American Democracy (2000) and his forthcoming book on the decline of American democracy is titled You Can't Be President.

In an interview with The Huffington Post, MacArthur argued that the truth about the disaster-in-waiting in Iraq was always plain to see, so long as the will existed to search it out. [for more click on the heading]