After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the administration of President George W. Bush is gathering evidence that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction, the use of which must be prevented at all costs. Bush justifies the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in order to depose Saddam Hussein as ruler. While most of the Washington press takes the president's words at face value, Jonathan Landay and Warren Stroebel dig deeper. They chase every lead, using anonymous government sources to reveal that the president's reasons for going to war are based on lies and false information. But soon the two reporters learn that revealing the truth does not mean that people want to hear it and that the voices of war drown out any contradiction.