[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Heads Up... from Michael Moore

[Al Kagan]

>
>
>Subject: Heads Up... from Michael Moore
>
>Heads Up
>April 14, 2004
>
>
>Friends,
>
>I have never seen a head so far up a Presidential ass
>(pardon my Falluja) than the one I saw last night at the
>"news conference" given by George W. Bush. He's still
>talking about finding "weapons of mass destruction" -- this
>time on Saddam's "turkey farm." Turkey indeed. Clearly the
>White House believes there are enough idiots in the 17
>swing states who will buy this. I think they are in for a
>rude awakening.
>
>I've been holed up for weeks in the editing room finishing
>my film ("Fahrenheit 911"). That's why you haven't heard
>from me lately. But after last night's Lyndon Johnson
>impersonation from the East Room -- essentially promising
>to send even more troops into the Iraq sinkhole -- I had to
>write you all a note.
>
>First, can we stop the Orwellian language and start using
>the proper names for things? Those are not "contractors" in
>Iraq. They are not there to fix a roof or to pour concrete
>in a driveway. They are MERCENARIES and SOLDIERS OF
>FORTUNE. They are there for the money, and the money is
>very good if you live long enough to spend it.
>
>Halliburton is not a "company" doing business in Iraq. It
>is a WAR PROFITEER, bilking millions from the pockets of
>average Americans. In past wars they would have been
>arrested -- or worse.
>
>The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not
>"insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the
>REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow --
>and they will win. Get it, Mr. Bush? You closed down a
>friggin' weekly newspaper, you great giver of freedom and
>democracy! Then all hell broke loose. The paper only had
>10,000 readers! Why are you smirking?
>
>One year after we wiped the face of the Saddam statue with
>our American flag before yanking him down, it is now too
>dangerous for a single media person to go to that square in
>Baghdad and file a report on the wonderful one-year
>anniversary celebration. Of course, there is no
>celebration, and those brave blow-dried "embeds" can't even
>leave the safety of the fort in downtown Baghdad. They
>never actually SEE what is taking place across Iraq (most
>of the pictures we see on TV are shot by Arab media and
>some Europeans). When you watch a report "from Iraq" what
>you are getting is the press release handed out by the U.S.
>occupation force and repeated to you as "news."
>
>I currently have two cameramen/reporters doing work for me
>in Iraq for my movie (unbeknownst to the Army). They are
>talking to soldiers and gathering the true sentiment about
>what is really going on. They Fed Ex the footage back to me
>each week. That's right, Fed Ex. Who said we haven't
>brought freedom to Iraq! The funniest story my guys tell me
>is how when they fly into Baghdad, they don't have to show
>a passport or go through immigration. Why not? Because they
>have not traveled from a foreign country -- they're coming
>from America TO America, a place that is ours, a new
>American territory called Iraq.
>
>There is a lot of talk amongst Bush's opponents that we
>should turn this war over to the United Nations. Why should
>the other countries of this world, countries who tried to
>talk us out of this folly, now have to clean up our mess? I
>oppose the U.N. or anyone else risking the lives of their
>citizens to extract us from our debacle. I'm sorry, but the
>majority of Americans supported this war once it began and,
>sadly, that majority must now sacrifice their children
>until enough blood has been let that maybe -- just maybe --
>God and the Iraqi people will forgive us in the end.
>
>Until then, enjoy the "pacification" of Falluja, the
>"containment" of Sadr City, and the next Tet Offensive -
>oops, I mean, "terrorist attack by a small group of
>Baathist loyalists" (Hahaha! I love writing those words,
>Baathist loyalists, it makes me sound so Peter Jennings!)
>-- followed by a "news conference" where we will be told
>that we must "stay the course" because we are "winning the
>hearts and minds of the people."
>
>I'll write again soon. Don't despair. Remember, the
>American people are not that stupid. Sure, we can be
>frightened into a war, but we always come around sooner or
>later -- and the one way this is NOT like Vietnam is that
>it hasn't taken the public four long years to figure out
>they were lied to.
>
>Now if Bush would just quit speaking in public and giving
>me more free material for my movie, I can get back to work
>and get it done. I've got four weeks left 'til completion.
>
>Yours,
>
>Michael Moore
>mmflint at aol.com
>www.michaelmoore.com
>
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-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu