www.commondreams.org/views04/0622-11.htmPublished on Tuesday, June 22, 2004 by the Calgary Sun / Canada
AM-BUSHED: TURNS OUT PEACENIKS WERE THE REAL PATRIOTS ALL ALONG by Rick Bell
It should anger all of us, this Fahrenheit 9/11 film. In fact, Michael Moore's award-winning, irritatingly incisive expose of Bush Junior and his strike-first-and-ask-questions-never bully boys, should leave Calgarians particularly peeved, since it is a celluloid confirmation of betrayal by a president much loved in these parts. How hard it will be for some of us to finally confront the truth. Those who have been made fools.
After all, think back.
When Dubya decided to embark on his misadventure in Iraq, sentiment in this country from coast to coast to coast swung solidly against signing up with the coalition for the killing, cautious about a common cause that was righteous in rhetoric but murky in motives. At the time, precious little skepticism surfaced in Calgary, however.
A solid majority of this city's citizens, including the overwhelmingly-adored favorite sons Ralph Klein and Stephen Harper, were gung-ho Geronimo ready to send our forces into the firefight, semper fi, do-or-die. The good ol' U.S. of A. Their country, right or wrong. Let's twist those Iraqi wrists until they say Uncle... Sam.
Only a few thousand stalwarts, activists like Noel Ainsley, took to the streets to sound the alarm, shocked but refusing to be awed by the promised pulverizing. They did nothing rude or radical, simply questioned the edicts of authority.
Where were those weapons of mass destruction? Did the Iraqis really pose a imminent threat to us? Why could we not wait for the UN inspectors to complete their mission, mere weeks? Where WAS this alleged link between 9/11 and Iraq?
If no link, and there isn't, then what was the real purpose of the war? Why were the swimming-in-oil Saudis not pursued, Saudi Arabia being home base to most of the hijackers and the big bucks of the bin Laden clan? Why did 9/11 itself somehow get lost in the shuffle, with no card ever assigned out of the famous deck?
Ask those questions last year around these hawkish environs and you'd bear the bull's-eye, targeted as a traitor, an appeaser, an anti-American, a peacenik, a wimp, a Saddam sympathizer, some sort of snot who would have rolled over for Hitler if you'd been born back before the Big One.
Like Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, inspiration for this film's title and a book about a society of blinkered book-burners, there was just one legitimate line and you were expected to shut up and toe it.
So we have this film, opening Friday in a cinema near you. There are humorous bits, as in Moore's past efforts, but there is much that is not. There is the person of Michael Moore but there are many spots where the story tells the tale.
You will see the grieving Iraqi mother and the grieving American mother, the abused prisoners and the grunts in the gunsights. You will see the slimy world of oil politics (see, this film is of interest to the oilpatch), the links between the Saudi royals and the Bush family, the money being made by the mighty in the land once known as Mesopotamia.
There is the vacationing prez not getting worked up by evidence of an impending attack, opposing an investigation into 9/11 after it occurred, there is the cheerleading press corps. You find out more on why the Americans turned their guns on a country not connected to the terrorist attacks, you will witness those who lose their liberties in the name of security, you will find out the name blacked out when Bush made public his less-than-gallant military record and why.
You will see how Bush actually responded when he finds out about the attacks on the awful day. You will NOT see the Baghdad victory parade or the vanquishing of al-Qaida (they got bigger) or congressmen's kids marching off to war (there's one).
In the end, Michael Moore makes a simple statement, unspoken in the script of this film but repeated elsewhere.
It is patriotic to question the government.
Who didn't question? Who are the real traitors now?
Copyright © 2004, Sun Media Corporation
