Reflecting on Our Iraq War Coverage, 20 Years Later

Mar 27, 2023

This past week has marked the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the United States’ “Shock and Awe” invasion of Iraq. It was preceded by many months of a shock-and-awe corporate media propaganda barrage that sought to convince Americans that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was a direct threat to their safety and well-being who had to be deposed at all cost. George W. Bush’s war was championed not only by conservative outlets like Fox News but by the other TV networks, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Atlantic and the editorial boards of every major daily newspaper in the country.

We didn’t buy it. We knew governments lie all the time, especially our own. In November 2002 edition, we asked ““Why War? Why Now?” across the top of Page 1. In the 20 pages that followed, we looked at the growing antiwar movement and the media’s disinterest in it, uplifted voices from Baghdad and the Middle East, delved into the role of oil in the conflict, and mocked the chickenhawks who staffed the Bush administration. We also created a stunning center-spread poster map for “budding weapons inspectors” that showed where key parts of the U.S.’s Weapons of Mass Destruction infrastructure was located.

The Indypendent continued to pour on the coverage in the months and years that followed. We had no paid staff and ran on a small budget. But we knew how to think critically and how to listen to grassroots movements in the United States and beyond that were mobilizing from below. With the support of our readers, we’ve continued telling important stories you won’t find elsewhere. When you support independent media, you are investing in journalism that is free to tell the truth.