Here is Alison Broinowski's review of Andrew Wilkie's Axis of Deceit and Not Happy, John!, published in the latest Australian Book Review magazine. Thanks for permission to publish it here, Alison.
A Cancer in Our Polity
by Alison Broinowski
Governments lie, as veteran US journalist I.F. Stone used to remind us. Worse than that, some of them now defy with impunity the clearly stated wishes of the majority, and international agreements, too. We seem to have entered an era in which the meaning of democracy is being alarmingly redefined. Let us hope it is merely a passing phase.
Majorities in the Anglo-alliance countries now believe that our governments misled us and that the war in Iraq was not justified. This year, for the first time ever, former diplomats and former military commanders in all three countries have signed statements deploring their governments