With the Oct. 5, release of “Fahrenheit 9/11,” I thought I should give a brief rundown on the movie’s lies and deceits. I call it a movie, because a documentary is based on facts, not misrepresentations.
The movie starts out by immediately attacking President Bush. Moore points out The Washington Times’ statistic showing that President Bush was on vacation 42 percent of his first eight months in office. But this statistic does not take into account the work the President does away from Washington D.C. There is no mention of the numerous foreign leaders who met with the President at his Texas ranch. Other presidents, such as Reagan, have done a lot of work away from the capital as well, such as hosting foreign dignitaries and even signing legislation at their personal residence. This does not translate into being “on vacation” most of the time.
The next thing Moore states is that President Bush was given a report on Aug. 6, 2001, stating “Osama Bin Ladin was planning to attack America by hijacking airplanes.” The generalized title of this briefing was “Bin Ladin determined to strike in U.S.” The briefing mentions nothing about Bin Ladin using airplanes to directly attack America. It actually states that the terrorist leader had been trying since 1998 to hijack a plane to gain release of U.S. held extremists. This is another way Moore uses information and spins it to fit his agenda.
He claims that in the days following 9/11, the bin Laden family and other Saudi nationals were flown to Saudi Arabia while air travel was on lockdown–all approved by President Bush. Richard Clarke, former terrorism czar and fierce critic of the Bush White House stated in a television interview that these flights went out after the lockdown had been eased and in some cases completely lifted. He stated that the decision was his and his alone. The 9/11 commission supports his claim, saying that, “each of the flights we have studied was investigated by the FBI and dealt with in a professional manner prior to its departure.”
Next, Moore claims that America didn’t do enough in Afghanistan. Never mind that Afghanistan is now a sovereign nation, liberated from the torture and tyranny of the Taliban and their al Qaeda allies. Moore goes on to imply that the real reason Bush went in was to build an oil pipeline through the country. Such a pipeline has yet to be built in Afghanistan.
Moore portrays a scenario in which President Bush manipulated terrorism threat levels to scare America. By doing this, he leads the viewer to believe that Americans would support a war with anyone, including Iraq, which he claimed proposed no threat. Moore never mentions the terrorist training camps in Iraq. He fails to mention the over 350,000 dead Kurds. It is difficult to get exact figures of death tolls due to Saddam. Some sources say the total reported dead or missing is between 500,000 to 1,000,000. Even if there were no “weapons of mass destruction,” Saddam was practicing genocide against these people for opposing him. In fact, anyone who opposed him was tortured and killed. Moore neglects to mention the torture chambers that are now closed.
He does, however, show a select few Iraqis who were upset with the U.S. at the onset of the war because they lost loved ones to American bombs. War is hell. No weapons are perfect and sometimes they hit unintended targets, but this does not take away the fact that we stopped genocide. There are no clips of the Iraqi people celebrating in the streets with U.S. soldiers after their liberation. Where is the footage of Iraqis cheering at the toppling of Hussein’s statue?
Moore then goes on to attack military recruiters, claiming that they go after people with low incomes. He makes no mention of the fact that the military improves their lives and the lives of their families. He fails to recognize that most people are in the military because they love their country. He only presents the notion that military recruiters victimize poor people.
To this I must say Michael Moore is absolutely wrong. The military seeks to recruit those who are ready to do their part to serve their country, and in doing so, earn money for college. They do not look at your monetary status.
I know a little about this, because I served my country proudly from1995 to 1999 in the Air Force. I did not come from the worst part of town nor did I go to the worst school. My family was neither rich nor poor. We were simply comfortable with what we had.
I joined the military to serve my country and if necessary, I would die for her. And I will do so today if called upon. My decision had nothing to do with money and everything to do with the fact that I felt it was my duty to serve America. I wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps by serving honorably and making my family proud. And proud they are.
Michael Moore, not President Bush, is deceiving the American people with his spin on the truth. I, for one, will continue to support my country, and I am thankful that Americans are more intelligent than Moore makes them out to be.
