[PAA-Discuss] Never Forget: Bad Wars Aren't Possible Unless Good People Back Them ...a...
Juli3 at aol.com
Juli3 at aol.com
Wed Sep 15 18:16:49 EDT 2010
Never Forget: Bad Wars Aren't Possible Unless Good People Back Them
Today's OpenMike blog by Michael Moore
September 15, 2010
I know we've been "free" of the Iraq War for two weeks now and our minds
have turned to the new football season and Fashion Week in New York. And how
exciting that the new fall TV season is just days away!
But before we get too far away from something we would all just like to
forget, will you please allow me to just say something plain and blunt and
necessary:
We invaded Iraq because most Americans -- including good liberals like Al
Franken, Nicholas Kristof & Bill Keller of the New York Times, David
Remnick of the New Yorker, the editors of the Atlantic and the New Republic,
Harvey Weinstein, Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer and John Kerry -- wanted to.
Of course the actual blame for the war goes to
Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz because they ordered the "precision" bombing, the invasion, the
occupation, and the theft of our national treasury. I have no doubt that history
will record that they committed the undisputed Crime of the (young) Century.
But how did they get away with it, considering they'd lost the presidential
election by 543,895 votes? They also knew that the majority of the country
probably wouldn't back them in such a war (a Newsweek poll in October 2002
showed 61% thought it was "very important" for Bush to get formal approval
from the United Nations for war -- but that never happened). So how did
they pull it off?
They did it by getting liberal voices to support their war. They did it by
creating the look of bipartisanship. And they convinced other countries'
leaders like Tony Blair to get on board and make it look like it wasn't just
our intelligence agencies cooking the evidence.
But most importantly, they made this war (and its public support) happen
because Bush & Co. had brilliantly conned the New York Times into running a
bunch of phony front-page stories about how Saddam Hussein had all these
"weapons of mass destruction." The administration gleefully fed this false
information not to Fox News or the Washington Times. They gave it to
America's leading liberal newspaper. They must have had a laugh riot each morning
when they'd pick up the New York Times and read the nearly word-for-word
scenarios and talking points that they had concocted in the Vice President's
office.
I blame the New York Times more for this war than Bush. I expected Bush
and Cheney to try and get away with what they did. But the Times -- and the
rest of the press -- was supposed to STOP them by doing their job: Be a
relentless watchdog of government and business -- and then inform the public so
we can take action.
Instead, the New York Times gave the Bush administration the cover they
needed. They could -- and did -- say, 'Hey, look, even the Times says Saddam
has WMD!'
With this groundwork laid, the Bush crowd ended up convincing a whopping
70% of the public to support the war -- a public that had given him less than
48% of its vote in 2000.
Early liberal support for this war was the key ingredient in selling it to
a majority of the public. I realize this is something that no one in the
media -- nor most of us -- really wants to discuss. Who among us wants to
feel the pain of having to remember that liberals, by joining with Bush, made
this war happen?
Please, before our collective memory fades, I just want us to be honest
with ourselves and present an unsanitized version of how they pulled off this
war. I can guarantee you the revisionists will make sure the real truth
will not enter the history books.
Children born when the war began started second grade this month.
Kids who were eleven in 2003 are now old enough to join up and get killed
in Iraq in a "non-combat capacity."
They'll never understand how we got here if we don't.
So let me state this clearly: This war was aided and abetted by a) liberals
who were afraid to stick their necks out and thus remained silent; and b)
liberals who actually said they believed Colin Powell's cartoon
presentation at the U.N. and then went against their better judgment by publicly
offering their support for the invasion of Iraq.
First, there were those 29 (turncoat) Democratic senators who voted for the
war. Then there was the embarrassing display of reporters who couldn't
wait to be "embedded" and go for a joy ride on a Bradley tank.
But my real despair lies with the people I counted on for strong opposition
to this madness -- but who left the rest of us alone, out on a limb, as we
tried to stop the war.
In March of 2003, to be a public figure speaking out against the war was
considered instant career suicide. Take the Dixie Chicks as Exhibit A. Their
lead singer, Natalie Maines, uttered just one sentence of criticism -- and
their career was effectively dead and buried at that moment. Bruce
Springsteen spoke out in their defense, and a Colorado DJ was fired for refusing to
not play their songs. That was about it. Crickets everywhere else.
Then MSNBC fired the only nightly critic of the war -- the television
legend, Phil Donahue. No one at the network -- or any network -- spoke up on
his behalf. There would never again be a Phil Donahue show. (Little did GE
know that, when they soon filled that 8pm hour with a sports guy by the name
of Keith Olbermann, they would end up with the war's most brilliant and
fiercest critic, night after night after night.) There were a few others --
Bill Maher, Janeane Garofalo, Tim Robbins and Seymour Hersh -- who weren't
afraid to speak the truth. But where was everyone else? Where were all those
supposed liberal voices in the media?
Instead, this is what we were treated to back in 2003 and 2004:
** Al Franken, who said he "reluctantly" was "a supporter of the war
against Saddam." And six months into the war Al was still saying, "There were
reasons to go to war against Iraq ... I was very ambivalent about it but I
still don't know if it was necessarily wrong (to go to war)."
** Nicholas Kristof, columnist for the New York Times, who attacked me and
wrote a column comparing me to the nutty right-wingers who claimed Hillary
had Vince Foster killed. He said people like me were "polarizing the
political cesspool," and he chastised anyone who dared call Bush's reasons for
going to war in Iraq "lies."
** Howell Raines, editor-in-chief of the "liberal" New York Times, who
was, according to former Times editor Doug Frantz, "eager to have articles
that supported the war-mongering out of Washington ... He discouraged pieces
that were at odds with the administration's position on Iraq's supposed
weapons of mass destruction and alleged links of al-Qaeda." The book "Hard
News" reported that "according to half a dozen sources within the Times, Raines
wanted to prove once and for all that he wasn't editing the paper in a way
that betrayed his liberal beliefs..."
** Bill Keller, at the time a New York Times columnist, who wrote: "We
reluctant hawks may disagree among ourselves about the most compelling logic
for war -- protecting America, relieving oppressed Iraqis or reforming the
Middle East -- but we generally agree that the logic for standing pat does
not hold. ... we are hard pressed to see an alternative that is not built on
wishful thinking."
(The New York Times is so left-wing that when Raines retired, they
replaced him with... Keller.)
** The New Yorker, the magazine for really smart liberals, found its
editor-in-chief, David Remnick, supporting the war on its pages: "History will
not easily excuse us if, by deciding not to decide, we defer a reckoning
with an aggressive totalitarian leader who intends not only to develop weapons
of mass destruction but also to use them. ... a return to a hollow pursuit
of containment will be the most dangerous option of all." (To cover its
ass, the New Yorker had another editor, Rick Hertzberg, write an anti-war
editorial as a rebuttal.)
Some of the above have recanted their early support of the war. The Times
fired its WMD correspondent and apologized to its readers. Al Franken has
been a great Senator. Kristof now writes nice columns (_check out last
Sunday's_ (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/opinion/12kristof.html) ).
But the support of the war by these leading liberals and the majority of
the Democrats in the Senate made it safe for the Right to let loose a vicious
and unchecked tirade of hate and threats on anyone (including myself) who
dared to step out of line. It was not uncommon to hear the media describe
me as "un-American," "anti-American," "aiding the terrorists," and being a
"traitor."
Here are just a couple of examples of what was said about me over the
airwaves by two of the nation's leading conservative commentators:
"Let me just tell you what I'm thinking. I'm thinking about killing Michael
Moore, and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to
hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could. I think he could be looking
me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out -- is this
wrong? I stopped wearing my 'What Would Jesus Do' band, and I've lost all
sense of right and wrong now. I used to be able to say, 'Yeah, I'd kill
Michael Moore,' and then I'd see the little band: 'What Would Jesus Do?' And
then I'd realize, 'Oh, you wouldn't kill Michael Moore. Or at least you
wouldn't choke him to death.' And you know, well, I'm not sure." (Glenn Beck)
And:
"Well, I want to kill Michael Moore. Is that all right? All right. And I
don't believe in capital punishment. That's just a joke on Moore." (Bill
O'Reilly)
(Ironically, O'Reilly made his threat/joke the night after Janet Jackson's
breast was bared at the Super Bowl -- which got CBS fined over half a
million dollars because, you know, nipples are far more frightening than death
threats.)
So that's how I'll personally remember the early war years: living with a
real and present danger caused by the hate whipped up by right-wing radio
and TV. (I've been advised not to recount certain specific incidents that
happened to me, as it would only encourage other crazy people.)
So I dealt with it. And I'm still here. And I know many of you went through
your own crap, standing up against the war at school, or work, or at
Thanksgiving dinner, taking your own blows for simply saying what was the
truth.
But how much easier it would have been for all of us if the liberal
establishment had stood with us? We didn't own a daily newspaper, or a magazine
with a circulation in the millions. We didn't have our own TV show or
network. We weren't invited on shows like "Meet the Press," because they simply
could not allow our voice to be heard.
The media watchdog group FAIR reported that in the three weeks after the
war started, the CBS Evening News allowed only one anti-war voice on their
show -- and that was on one night in one soundbite (and that was four
seconds of me in a line from my Oscar speech) -- even though in March of 2003 our
anti-war numbers were in the millions (remember the huge demonstrations in
hundreds of cities?). We were around 30% of the country according to most
polls (that's nearly 100 million Americans!) and yet we had no way to
communicate with each other aside from through the Nation and a few websites
like _CommonDreams.org_ (http://www.commondreams.org/) and _Truth-Out.org_
(http://www.truth-out.org/) .
But that was no way to build a huge mass movement of Middle Americans to
oppose the war. Unless you had just lucked out and been handed an Oscar on
live television in front of a gazillion people where you had 45 seconds to
say something before they cut you off and booed you off the stage (_hahahaha_
(http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhbzq_michael-moore-oscar-speech_music)
), you had no public platform. (Jeez, I sure did get booed a lot that year:
simply walking through an airport, or eating dinner in a restaurant, or
sitting at a Laker game where they suddenly put me up on the Jumbotron and the
place went so angry-crazy that Larry David, who was sitting next to me,
felt that maybe for his own safety he should perhaps slide a few seats down
or go get us a couple of wieners. Instead, he stuck by my side -- and his
skillful ninja moves got us out of there alive after the game.)
I know it's hard to remember, but when this war started, there was no
_YouTube_ (http://www.youtube.com/mmflint) , no _Facebook_
(http://www.facebook.com/mmflint) , no _Twitter_ (http://twitter.com/mmflint) , no way for you to
bypass the media lords so you could have your own friggin' say.
Too bad for the bastards, those days are over.
The next time around, it won't be so easy to shut up a country girl band or
try to silence someone while he accepts his little gold statue -- or
completely ignore the millions of citizens in the streets.
So now we can hope that one of our wars is over. Too bad we lost. I hate to
lose, don't you? But the fact is, we lost the very day we invaded a
sovereign nation that posed absolutely no threat to us and had nothing to do
with 9/11. We lost lives (over 4,400 of ours, hundreds of thousands of
theirs), we lost limbs (a total of 35,000 troops came back with various wounds and
disabilities and God knows how many more with mental problems). We lost
the money our grandchildren were supposed to live on.
And we lost our soul, who we were, what we stood for as a once-great
country -- lost it all. Can we now ask for redemption -- for forgiveness? Can we
be... "America" again?
I guess we'll see. The vast majority of the country eventually came around
to the Dixie Chicks' position. And we elected an anti-Iraq-war guy by the
name of Barack Hussein Obama.
But, please, promise yourselves never to forget how our country went crazy
7 1/2 years ago -- even though, to many people at the time, it seemed
completely normal. And I'm here to tell you, no matter how much better it's
gotten, no matter how normal you may think things are now, we're still halfway
nuts. Just listen to the new batch of "sensible pundits" as they start to
beat the drums about what we should do to Iran. One war down, one (or two or
three) to go.
C'mon, Mr. President, not one more kid needs to die overseas wearing a
uniform with our flag on it. We can't win like this. Let's dig a few thousand
wells in Afghanistan, build a few free mosques, leave behind some food and
clothing, fix their electrical grid, issue an apology and set up a Facebook
page so they can stay in touch with us -- and then let's get the hell out.
_Your own National Security Advisor_
(http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/president-obamas-secret-100-al-qaeda-now-afghanistan/story?id=9227861) and _your
CIA Director_ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIb7uD90POU) have told you
there are less than 100 al-Qaeda fighters in the entire country. 100???
100,000 U.S. troops going after 100 al-Qaeda? Is this a Looney Tunes
presentation? "A-ba-dee-a-ba-dee-a-ba-dee -- That's All Folks!" Let's get real.
I'm glad one war is "over." But I know how we got there -- and I'm willing
now to fight just as hard to stop these other wars if you won't, Mr. Obama.
Your call.
Yours,
Michael Moore
_Mike at MichaelMoore.com_ (mailto:Mike at MichaelMoore.com)
_MichaelMoore.com_ (http://www.michaelmoore.com/)
P.S. Just a thought, Mr. President. Can I ask that you go back and watch
this movie I made -- "Fahrenheit 9/11." There might be some answers there. I
give you my permission to download it for free by going to this site:
_TorrentHound.com_
(http://www.torrenthound.com/hash/6cf21be0af1d3195a69cccfe1520f833a5928f19/torrent-info/Fahrenheit-9-11-2004-DVDRip-Eng) . Don't tell the
studio I said it was ok! They've only made a half a billion $$ on it so
far.
P.P.S. To everyone on my list: Thanks to your thousands of generous
donations, we've raised over $60,000 for the Muslim community center near Ground
Zero. This has made news around the world, that there are Americans who
believe in our stated American principles.
--------------------------------
The second part of Mike's interview with Wolf Blitzer will air today on
CNN's _The Situation Room_ (http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/situation.room/)
(5-7pm ET).
Also: _Bill Maher_ (http://www.hbo.com/real-time-with-bill-maher) has
asked Mike to be his first guest of his new season this Friday at 10pm ET on
HBO.
_Join Mike's Mailing List_ (http://www.michaelmoore.com/visitor/register)
| _Follow Mike on Twitter_ (http://twitter.com/mmflint) | _Join Mike's
Facebook Group_ (http://www.facebook.com/mmflint) | _Become Mike's MySpace
Friend_ (http://www.myspace.com/mmflint)
You are currently subscribed to michaelmoore as: juli3 at aol.com
Add maillist at michaelmoore.com to your email address book to ensure
delivery
_Forward to a Friend_
(http://go.netatlantic.com/subscribe/forwardtoafriend.tml?m=37861504.e63d12a6ee0ffff97f312314b560559e&o=23804490) | _Manage
Subscription_
(http://go.netatlantic.com/subscribe/managesubscription.tml?m=37861504.e63d12a6ee0ffff97f312314b560559e) |
_Subscribe_
(http://go.netatlantic.com/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=michaelmoore) | _Unsubscribe_
(http://go.netatlantic.com/u?id=37861504.e63d12a6ee0ffff97f312314b560559e&n=T&l=michaelmoore&o=23804490)
(http://www.netatlantic.com/learnmore/?list=michaelmoore&server=go)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://paa-tx.org/pipermail/discuss_paa-tx.org/attachments/20100915/bdc47459/attachment.htm>
More information about the Discuss
mailing list