"Fahrenheit 9/11," Michael Moore's latest documentary, gives a detailed account of the events leading up to 9/11 and the President's response. As the movie opens it recounts how Bush literally stole the Presidency, with the help of his brother Jeb Bush, the Governor of Florida, and his friend, Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris. The movie potrays how African-American voters in Florida were disenfranchised and how no member of the U.S. Senate was willing to sign their petition to investigate the election.
After describing the process by which Bush was se-lected, Moore documents how Bush spent the months following inauguration taking extended vacations for his two favorite sports, golfing and hunting. The nation effectively had no one in the driver's seat during this period. The FBI gave John Ashcroft repeated warnings of an imminent terrorist attack by al Queda, but rather than taking action to protect the nation Ashcroft said that he was tired of hearing about the warnings and didn't want to hear anything more about it.
Perhaps the most troubling part of the movie concerns the presence of the Osama bin Laden family in the U.S. on the day of 9/11. Members of the bin Laden family were living in Washingon, D.C., Los Angeles, and Orlando. Just days after the attack on 9/11, the bin Laden family was rushed out of the county by plane on 9/13 when all commercial flights were grounded. Ironically, Osama bin Laden's eldest brother Salem, was one of Bush's first business partners. Interesting behavior for a President who describes himself as the leader on the war against terror. Perhaps if Bush could break his business ties with the terrorists, that might help us win the war? Just a thought.
Bush's ineptness is best shown in his handling of the 9/11 attack. On the morning of the attack, Bush is making an appearance in a predominantly black grade school in Texas to read "My Pet Goat" with the students. After being informed that the second plane was flown into the World Trade Center, Bush was at a loss as to how to proceed. Instead of taking action to protect the Nation's security, he simply sat there and did nothing. He continued reading "My Pet Goat."
In the weeks and months following 9/11, Bush wakes up. Now it's time to attack Afghanistan. Lives of American soldiers are given in vain as we fail to capture the man behind it all, Osama bin Laden. Of course, why would we want to capture a friend of the Bush family?
Then the real charade begins. As Moore describes, we refocus our efforts on Iraq and wage war on a county that never attacked, threatened, or presented a known threat to the United States. "Fahrenheit 9/11" puts the camera on the bodies of the burned Iraqi children, innocent, yet brutally murdered by the U.S. military. All for weapons of mass destruction that were never found.
OIL- Operation Iraqi Liberation. As one conservative recently told me, "Ah, but the oil we will get will be well worth it." So we finally get to the truth. All of these Iraqi children were killed so that Dick Cheney, former CEO of Halliburton could help out his old company. But I thought this was free market society with open competition? No, Halliburton was pre-selected to receive all of the major oil contracts. That's American tax dollars going into the pocket of Dick Cheney's buddies. Meanwhile, 60% of American corporations, like Halliburton, pay zero tax dollars. Seem fair to you?
Another company the Bush administration has picked to rebuild Iraq also had ties to bin Laden's family, Betchtel Corporation. Osama bin Laden family members invested $10M in an equity fund run by the former Bechtel unit. Yes, we want to make sure the bin Laden family benefits from the war efforts, since, after all, Osama bin Laden was responsible for the terrorist attacks that convinced us that we needed to go to war in the first place.
Oh, but we're liberating Iraq. Even if weapons of mass destruction were never found, Saddam Hussein was an evil dictator and we needed to liberate the country. Please explain this to me: How do you liberate a county by killing its innocent citizens? Sounds a little fishy to me.
Overall, Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" depicts the fatal errors of an incompetent administration that was not duly elected in the first place. We can only hope that the good Americans will do a better job to ensure that a competent leader is chosen this November. And that would be ANYBODY BUT BUSH!
"Since when did telling the truth mean you're a liberal?"
