Dying for a Lie

"A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it."  ~ Oscar Wilde

All Americans know that Memorial Day is a federal holiday. Most Americans know that it commemorates U. S. soldiers who died in military service for their country. Many Americans believe that U. S. soldiers died defending our freedoms. Few Americans believe that they died for a lie. They died in vain; they died for a lie. This does not mean that they were not brave, heroic, well-meaning, or patriotic. They may have fought with the best of intentions; they may have sacrificed themselves for others; they may have been sincere in their belief that they were fighting for a good cause; but they died for a lie.

Fahrenheit 9/11

War is big business and it is immensely profitable for a select few who are insulted from the effects of war’s environmental impacts and sociable coasts. War never serves the interest of working class people.

There have been many attempts in the media so far to offer evidence that President George W. Bush is an incompetent moron and that his administration is corrupt .Fahrenheit 9/11 is an award-winning documentary film by American filmmaker and political activist Michael Moore, which had a general release in the United States and Canada on June 25, 2004. Because of its harsh critique of the Bush Administration, it generated much controversy around the time of its release. Moore referred to the film as a "satirical documentary" on The Late Show with David Letterman in November 2004.

The film has since been released in 42 more countries and holds the record for highest box office receipts by a general release documentary. The title derives from Ray Bradbury's dystopian science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451 (and the film of the same name based on it) and the September 11, 2001 attacks. The film debuted at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival in the documentary film category and was awarded the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm), the festival's highest award, by an international jury (four North Americans, four Europeans, and one Asian).

The film generated a great deal of controversy. It presents a critical look at George W. Bush, his presidency and the War on Terrorism. The Los Angeles Times described the film as "an alternate history of the last four years on the U.S. political scene." The documentary has another theme of criticizing the American corporate media for being "cheerleaders" for the war in Iraq, and not providing an accurate and objective analysis of what led to the Iraq invasion and the resulting casualties there.

The film starts with presenting images of the night the election results were counted. First, Moore highlights the disenfranchisement of primarily black voters in Florida in the 2000 election, a political scandal that the mainstream commercial news media in the United States has largely ignored. The footage of a joint session of Congress in which Congressional Black Caucus members can't get a senator to sign their letter to allow floor debate about the issue (a procedural requirement) is a powerful indictment not only of the Republicans who perpetrated the fraud but the Democratic leadership that refused to challenge it.

On the Inauguration Day tens of thousands of Americans poured into the streets of D.C. to reclaim what had been taken from them. His approval ratings in the polls began to sink. He was already beginning to look like “a lame duck president”. With everything going wrong he did what any of us would do. He went on vacation. In his first 8 months in office before September 11 George W. Bush was on vacation, according to the Washington Post, 42 percent of the time.

The next scene is of Bush sitting in a Florida classroom with kids. Moore notes that even after being told of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center, President Bush decided to go ahead with the photo opportunity, holding a children's book for seven minutes after being told "The country is under attack." The scene includes the actual footage of Bush being notified of the attack while Moore notes that "with nothing to do, and no one telling him what to do," Bush continued to sit in the classrooms during the attacks doing nothing until being coaxed by his waiting staff. Moore also speculates that perhaps Bush was wondering if maybe he should have taken less vacation or perhaps he was thinking he should have held at least one meeting before 9/11 on national security with his National Security director Richard A. Clarke or that he should have read the August 6th security briefing given to him by the FBI which said that Osama bin Laden was planning to attack the United States using aircraft. Moore also reflects on how Donald Rumsfeld provided weapons to Saddam Hussein in the 1980's, Taliban leaders visited Texas while Bush was governor, and the relationship of the Bush family to the Saudi royal family. Moore also moves on saying most of the hijackers were Saudis and says that Bush and his advisers decided to blame Saddam Hussein in the run-up to the Iraq War.

The film then discusses the causes and aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. In the film, Moore also describes the links between the Bush family and associated persons, such as prominent Saudi Arabian families, including the Saudi royal family and the family of Osama bin Laden. The links form a relationship spanning three decades, supposedly worth $1.4 billion to the Bush family, friends, and associates.

Moore then examines the government-sponsored evacuation of Bin Laden family members after the attacks. He alleges that immediately after the attacks all air traffic within the United States was grounded, yet persons at the "highest levels" of the U.S. government allowed specific flights to gather up 142 Saudis, including 24 members of the bin Laden family, and allow them to leave the country. A retired FBI agent who previously was a senior joint Al Qaeda task force member is interviewed saying it was improper to vacate Bin Laden family members without handing the subpoenas out, having them come in, getting on-the-record.

Moore moves on to a Vietnam War–era document of George W. Bush's Air National Guard (ANG) service record — first the redacted copy produced by the White House, then an uncensored copy that Moore had obtained a few years earlier. The difference between the versions is that the White House blacked out the name of James R. Bath, an ANG friend of Bush's who went on to work as a financial agent for the Saudis and helped channel Saudi money to one of Bush's businesses. This redaction may have been due to HIPAA restrictions on the release of medical records; in this case the record shows Bath's suspension for not taking an exam. Moore's uncensored copy was from 2000, and the restrictions did not take effect until 2003. He contends that Bush's dry-hole oil well attempts were partially funded by the Saudis and, in fact, by bin Laden family money through the intermediary of Bath. Moore alleges that this and other conflicts of interest including Bush involvement in the Carlyle Group suggest that the Bush administration is not working in the best interests of Americans. The movie continues by suggesting ulterior motives for the war in Afghanistan, including a natural gas pipeline through Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean.

Moore then shows television and documentary footage demonstrating that the Bush administration was "targeting" the American people with terrorism fears. This footage includes Fox News warnings of a "poison pen", people describing how to use a parachute to escape from tall buildings, numerous televised terror alerts and other items. The movie then describes purported anti-terror efforts including government infiltration of pacifist groups and other events, and continues with a discussion of expanded government powers in the Patriot Act, including interviews with Representatives John Conyers and Jim McDermott. It also includes the well-known scenes where Moore, using an ice cream truck, drives around congress reading the entire text of the Patriot Act, and former Attorney General John Ashcroft singing his self-penned patriotic song "Let the Eagle Soar".

The documentary then turns to the subject of the Iraq war, showing film footage of Iraq in 2003 before the invasion. The footage is generally positive in nature, depicting a wedding, happy Iraqi children playing, and other scenes from daily life. Bush's voice announcing the war is overlaid with these images, which quickly proceed into images of explosions and violence as the U.S. invasion of Iraq commenced. The movie then shows graphic footage of injured and dead combatants and civilians interspersed with interviews with U.S. troops and other footage of anguished Iraqi civilians.

Like all other Moore films, Fahrenheit 9/11 featured extensive focus on the town of Flint. In the economically hard-hit town, he explained that Flint's low-income neighborhoods were a prime target of military recruiters. The film follows two Marine recruiters, one of whom is Staff Sgt. Raymond J. Plouhar, in uniform canvassing local shopping malls, speaking to young men about enlistment..

The Flint segment also focused on a strong war supporter named Lila Lipscomb, a very patriotic woman, who believes in America and its ideals. She is really proud of her son, who participates in the war in Iraq. But when her son is killed there, she losses her faith in the war against terrorism, she starts questioning the purpose of this war. And, to my mind, it happens with the majority of Americans, because the war was based on a lie and when it uncovers, people lose their faith in the false ideals. Lila Lipscomb says: “My son wanted to be alive. And I can’t make him alive. A parent is not supposed to burry his child”.

Toward the end of the film, Moore confronts former congressman Mark Kennedy on the sidewalk to give them United States armed forces pamphlets and to urge them to have their children enlist, essentially arguing that those who supported the war should be willing to sacrifice for it. He notes that none of them are willing to do so - those who Moore approached quickly fled - as only one member of Congress has a child in Iraq.

The movie is dedicated to Moore's friend who was killed in the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001, and to those servicemen and women from Flint, Michigan, who have been killed in Iraq. The film is also dedicated to "countless thousands" of civilian victims of war as a result of United States military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.