Conghaileach
2nd July 2004, 15:02
ZMag
July 01, 2004
The Problem is Bigger than the Bushes
Reviewing Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11
by Stephen Rosenthal and Junaid Ahmad
Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 opened this past weekend (June 25) to record crowds and box office receipts across the United States. Moore is the author of the bestselling book Stupid White Men and producer of the award winning documentary Bowling for Columbine. The U.S. opening of Fahrenheit 9/11 was preceded by considerable excitement and political controversy. Released earlier in Europe to enthusiastic audiences opposed to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, it received the prestigious Palme D'Or (golden palm) award at the Cannes Film Festival. The internet based Democratic Party fundraising machine MoveOn.org, to celebrate the film opening, organized over 3000 "house parties" on June 28 where its supporters heard Michael Moore on closed circuit television urge viewers to "take back the White House" this November.
After Disney refused to distribute Fahrenheit 9/11 in the U.S., the Independent Film Channel (IFC), which is owned by Cablevision and financed by JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup, took over distribution and promotion of the film. This struggle over the distribution of the film, along with the film's obvious role in the 2004 election battle between the Republican and Democratic Parties, reflects the deep division Bush's debacle in Iraq has generated within the U.S. ruling class.
The large enthusiastic audiences in theaters throughout the U.S. and at the MoveOn.org house parties suggest that opposition to the Bush administration and to the war in Iraq has been growing considerably during the past several months. The absence of Iraqi WMDs and any connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda, the massive Iraqi insurgency against the occupation, the growing U.S. casualties, the ballooning costs of the war and the shaky economy have evidently had a cumulative effect in undermining mass support for the war.
Viewers who have suffered through the nightmare four years of the Bush administration and marched against the horrendous invasion and occupation of Iraq are understandably hopeful that Fahrenheit 9/11 will help produce "regime change" in the U.S. this fall. That may prove to be the case, but will putting Democrat John Kerry in the White House lead to withdrawal of U.S. troops, military bases, and profiteering corporations from Iraq, repeal of the Patriot Act, or a reorientation of U.S. foreign policy away from its drive for imperialist hegemony? And, if replacing Bush with Kerry does not deliver any of these results, does Fahrenheit 9/11 at least provide its viewers with the information and analysis they will need to understand why the leadership of the Democratic Party has betrayed their hopes and needs? We will attempt to answer these questions after first summarizing Michael Moore's indictment of George W. Bush.
Michael Moore begins the film by defining George W. Bush as an illegitimate President who stole the 2000 presidential election. He traces the family, business, and political connections of the key players who made sure that Bush won Florida's electoral votes. He shows us Al Gore, presiding over the Senate in his last act as vice-president, using his gavel to silence African American members of the House of Representatives, whose protest against certifying the election results cannot go forward because not one member of the all white U.S. Senate will sign their appeal against the massive racist disenfranchisement of black voters in Florida.
Moore depicts Bush as an incompetent leader who spent 42% of the first eight months of his presidency up to 9/11 on vacation. He cites findings of the 9/11 commission confirming that the Bush administration virtually ignored the threat of an Al Qaeda attack on the U.S. He then devotes a significant part of the film to analyzing the intricate network of oil, banking, and investment relationships between the Bush family and the rulers of Saudi Arabia, including the Bin Laden family. He informs us that George Bush senior is a major figure in the Carlyle Group, which has major investments in several of the biggest corporate military contractors. He describes how the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan were invited to Texas in an effort to negotiate the building of a natural gas pipeline through Afghanistan from Turkmenistan to the Indian Ocean.
Moore emphasizes how members of the Bin Laden family and other influential Saudis were allowed to fly out of the U.S. after 9/11 at a time when U.S. air space was otherwise shut down. Although Moore never explicitly states why he is telling this fairly detailed story, it seems pretty clear that he is trying to demonstrate that family business interests made Bush determined to invade first Afghanistan and then Iraq, rather than go after the country from which most of the 9/11 hijackers came. In other words, Moore is suggesting that Bush and his cronies put their personal interests above the national security of the United States.
Moore then devotes most of the rest of the film to the U.S. war on Iraq. He satirizes Bush's "coalition of the willing" by listing some of the militarily insignificant countries that did agree to join the coalition of invaders of Iraq. He briefly reviews the now thoroughly exposed lies Bush and his pals presented to gain support for invading Iraq. He dramatizes the human consequences of the war for the tortured and bombed Iraqis, for the American military soldiers who are fighting and dying in this preemptive war, and for the families, both Iraqi and American, who are devastated by the war's deadly destruction. He provides footage of meetings where corporate leaders eagerly discuss the profits they expect to reap from the exploitation and reconstruction of Iraq.
Most poignant is the story told by Lila Lipscomb, mother of Michael Pederson, killed in Iraq after Bush landed on an aircraft carrier and declared victory in Iraq. Lipscomb lives in Moore's hometown, Flint, Michigan. Lipscomb describes herself as a "conservative Democrat," who used to despise anti-war demonstrators. A white woman married to a black man, she has fought to survive amidst the economic wreckage left behind in Flint by General Motors in its search for cheaper labor and higher profits. She encouraged her daughter and son to enlist in the army, and she reads from her son's final letter home, in which he says of Bush, "He got us out here for nothing." At the end of the film, she visits Washington, gets as close to the White House as she can, and pours out her anger at its occupant. Her obviously authentic testimony is perhaps Moore's most potent ammunition in Fahrenheit 9/11.
In stark juxtaposition to Lila Lipscomb are the Congresspersons who scurry away from Moore when he tries to urge them to persuade their sons and daughters to enlist in the armed forces, and the fat cats attending one of Bush's fundraisers whom Bush calls his "base." By the end of the film, we see the immense contrast between the Bush crowd, who have launched a war to increase their wealth, and the ordinary working class people, who, as Moore observes, always make the biggest sacrifices in wars
Full Article (http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=5808)
July 01, 2004
The Problem is Bigger than the Bushes
Reviewing Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11
by Stephen Rosenthal and Junaid Ahmad
Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 opened this past weekend (June 25) to record crowds and box office receipts across the United States. Moore is the author of the bestselling book Stupid White Men and producer of the award winning documentary Bowling for Columbine. The U.S. opening of Fahrenheit 9/11 was preceded by considerable excitement and political controversy. Released earlier in Europe to enthusiastic audiences opposed to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, it received the prestigious Palme D'Or (golden palm) award at the Cannes Film Festival. The internet based Democratic Party fundraising machine MoveOn.org, to celebrate the film opening, organized over 3000 "house parties" on June 28 where its supporters heard Michael Moore on closed circuit television urge viewers to "take back the White House" this November.
After Disney refused to distribute Fahrenheit 9/11 in the U.S., the Independent Film Channel (IFC), which is owned by Cablevision and financed by JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup, took over distribution and promotion of the film. This struggle over the distribution of the film, along with the film's obvious role in the 2004 election battle between the Republican and Democratic Parties, reflects the deep division Bush's debacle in Iraq has generated within the U.S. ruling class.
The large enthusiastic audiences in theaters throughout the U.S. and at the MoveOn.org house parties suggest that opposition to the Bush administration and to the war in Iraq has been growing considerably during the past several months. The absence of Iraqi WMDs and any connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda, the massive Iraqi insurgency against the occupation, the growing U.S. casualties, the ballooning costs of the war and the shaky economy have evidently had a cumulative effect in undermining mass support for the war.
Viewers who have suffered through the nightmare four years of the Bush administration and marched against the horrendous invasion and occupation of Iraq are understandably hopeful that Fahrenheit 9/11 will help produce "regime change" in the U.S. this fall. That may prove to be the case, but will putting Democrat John Kerry in the White House lead to withdrawal of U.S. troops, military bases, and profiteering corporations from Iraq, repeal of the Patriot Act, or a reorientation of U.S. foreign policy away from its drive for imperialist hegemony? And, if replacing Bush with Kerry does not deliver any of these results, does Fahrenheit 9/11 at least provide its viewers with the information and analysis they will need to understand why the leadership of the Democratic Party has betrayed their hopes and needs? We will attempt to answer these questions after first summarizing Michael Moore's indictment of George W. Bush.
Michael Moore begins the film by defining George W. Bush as an illegitimate President who stole the 2000 presidential election. He traces the family, business, and political connections of the key players who made sure that Bush won Florida's electoral votes. He shows us Al Gore, presiding over the Senate in his last act as vice-president, using his gavel to silence African American members of the House of Representatives, whose protest against certifying the election results cannot go forward because not one member of the all white U.S. Senate will sign their appeal against the massive racist disenfranchisement of black voters in Florida.
Moore depicts Bush as an incompetent leader who spent 42% of the first eight months of his presidency up to 9/11 on vacation. He cites findings of the 9/11 commission confirming that the Bush administration virtually ignored the threat of an Al Qaeda attack on the U.S. He then devotes a significant part of the film to analyzing the intricate network of oil, banking, and investment relationships between the Bush family and the rulers of Saudi Arabia, including the Bin Laden family. He informs us that George Bush senior is a major figure in the Carlyle Group, which has major investments in several of the biggest corporate military contractors. He describes how the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan were invited to Texas in an effort to negotiate the building of a natural gas pipeline through Afghanistan from Turkmenistan to the Indian Ocean.
Moore emphasizes how members of the Bin Laden family and other influential Saudis were allowed to fly out of the U.S. after 9/11 at a time when U.S. air space was otherwise shut down. Although Moore never explicitly states why he is telling this fairly detailed story, it seems pretty clear that he is trying to demonstrate that family business interests made Bush determined to invade first Afghanistan and then Iraq, rather than go after the country from which most of the 9/11 hijackers came. In other words, Moore is suggesting that Bush and his cronies put their personal interests above the national security of the United States.
Moore then devotes most of the rest of the film to the U.S. war on Iraq. He satirizes Bush's "coalition of the willing" by listing some of the militarily insignificant countries that did agree to join the coalition of invaders of Iraq. He briefly reviews the now thoroughly exposed lies Bush and his pals presented to gain support for invading Iraq. He dramatizes the human consequences of the war for the tortured and bombed Iraqis, for the American military soldiers who are fighting and dying in this preemptive war, and for the families, both Iraqi and American, who are devastated by the war's deadly destruction. He provides footage of meetings where corporate leaders eagerly discuss the profits they expect to reap from the exploitation and reconstruction of Iraq.
Most poignant is the story told by Lila Lipscomb, mother of Michael Pederson, killed in Iraq after Bush landed on an aircraft carrier and declared victory in Iraq. Lipscomb lives in Moore's hometown, Flint, Michigan. Lipscomb describes herself as a "conservative Democrat," who used to despise anti-war demonstrators. A white woman married to a black man, she has fought to survive amidst the economic wreckage left behind in Flint by General Motors in its search for cheaper labor and higher profits. She encouraged her daughter and son to enlist in the army, and she reads from her son's final letter home, in which he says of Bush, "He got us out here for nothing." At the end of the film, she visits Washington, gets as close to the White House as she can, and pours out her anger at its occupant. Her obviously authentic testimony is perhaps Moore's most potent ammunition in Fahrenheit 9/11.
In stark juxtaposition to Lila Lipscomb are the Congresspersons who scurry away from Moore when he tries to urge them to persuade their sons and daughters to enlist in the armed forces, and the fat cats attending one of Bush's fundraisers whom Bush calls his "base." By the end of the film, we see the immense contrast between the Bush crowd, who have launched a war to increase their wealth, and the ordinary working class people, who, as Moore observes, always make the biggest sacrifices in wars
Full Article (http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=5808)