Mother Jones Supporter,

Sometimes, even if we think we’ve heard it all, it’s useful to be reminded just how much damage the Bush administration has inflicted. I thought, for instance, that I had a solid recollection of the fear-mongering and lies told by the Bush mob as they marched us toward war with Iraq and the current Mideast quagmire.

Then I read an early version of “Chronicles of a War Foretold,” a comprehensive timeline of how we got from 9/11 to the invasion of Iraq that will be published in the September issue of Mother Jones. Even as we live with the bloody consequences of “preemptive war,” it was shocking to see, gathered in one place in a compact and graphically accessible way, the unmistakable and cynical pattern of the lies that led us to this place. A pattern that no one has reported in quite this way – until now. It woke me up, pissed me off, and redoubled my resolve to do my utmost to make every American understand what has been done in our names.

There’s literally much more to the story – the timeline as published only goes through the spring of 2003 -- and I’m writing to ask for your help in completing the picture. As I’m writing this note to you, we’re adapting “Chronicles of a War Foretold” for the web. The online version of the timeline (it’ll go live in late August) will:

Bring the timeline up-to-date and keep current right through to the November 2008 presidential election;

Link each of the 600-plus entries on the timeline to original source or background material;
Enable online viewers to comment on each entry – and propose their own going forward; and
Be distributed far and wide across the ‘net, so that millions of viewers get a chance to read it.

Pulling a timeline like this together was not easy. Doing it right took months of work by two writer/reporters, Tim Dickinson and Jonathan Stein, weeks of fact-checking by our research team and fellows to make sure the references were accurate and bullet-proof, and another month of senior editorial work to shape all the pieces into a readable and attractive whole. We asked the Mother Jones art department to create a design to make the thorough factual matter of the timeline as accessible and enjoyable to read as it is informative – opening this story up, we believe, to people who have not so far grasped the real pattern of deception. Our web team has invested even more time adapting the timeline for the web, and tracking down source material to link with it. And our communications and staff will be pushing “Chronicles” out to hundreds of other media outlets, online and off.

The whole project done right will cost us nearly $55,000, but knowing what’s at stake – the broadest possible public understanding of the pattern of duplicity -- we hope you’ll agree that it’s money that is important and that needs to be committed now. We need to make this happen.

To help us move fast and get this done, I would like you to consider making a special contribution to the Mother Jones Investigative Fund. The Investigative Fund is how non-profit Mother Jones pays for these public interest projects, and contributions from readers like you are what feeds the Fund. Your support of the Fund today will make a real difference in the success of the Chronicles project.

With your support for the Mother Jones Investigative Fund we’ll max out the impact of the Chronicles. Furthermore, your support will help us keep delivering new, taboo-busting investigative reporting that can make a difference in the high stakes politics of our times.
Please, now, while you’re thinking about it -- make the most generous contribution you can.
We will put it right to work – and make every penny count.

Jay HarrisPublisher