http://www.nypress.com/16/9/mail/mail.cfm
That sure was an interesting review of Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You, the new book I co-authored with foreign correspondent Reese Erlich ("Books," 2/19). While Matt Taibbi called it "a valuable book, one that needs to exist, that carefully debunks all the popular fallacies about the war," he complained that "the book's preaching-to-the-converted factor is through the roof" and concluded that "The anti-war movement isn't going to succeed until someone in Solomon's position learns to talk to the other side-or at least learns to seem interested in trying."
Rest assured that "Target Iraq" was written to respect the minds and hearts of a wide cross-section of readers. On that note, it seems that we don't share some of Taibbi's evident presumptions about "the other side" (presumably Americans inclined to be pro-war). Hopefully there's some consistency between how we "talk to the other side" and how we talk about them in print. Stereotypes and cardboard cutouts won't get us very far.
I'd question the assumptions behind this sentence from Taibbi's review: "You can talk all you want about suffering Iraqi children and the long-term consequences of using depleted-uranium ammunition, but you're not going to convince some frustrated cubicle slave in Lawrence, KS, with a fat wife and forty grand in credit card debt and a spare tire that makes him sick with self-loathing every time he sees the cover of Men's Health, that he doesn't want to bomb the shit out of somebody, anybody, at the earliest conceivable opportunity, for the first reason you make available to him." If that's supposed to be astute sociology or cutting-edge political analysis, I'll pass.
During many hours on radio talk shows in recent weeks, I've been in conversation with callers who are all over the geographical and political map. Some are strongly pro-war, but that hardly means they're uninterested in serious discussions that involve facts and ideas. I think many of them are mistaken, but that doesn't mean they're idiots or impervious to new information.
Now being read across North America (and soon to be published in Germany, Italy and Hungary), Target Iraq respects people's intelligence while challenging popular myths. Obviously, I like the book a lot more than Matt Taibbi does. But beyond the biases of authors and reviewers, the important assessments will come from readers.
Norman Solomon, San Francisco