Sorry but its long. I'm not going to go into my personal political views or opinions. And I'm not here to debate this article for its correctness or faults. I just put it here so that others might take a look.
Thanks,
ajeroth
>>MY PROBLEM WITH "FAHRENHEIT 9/11"
>
>By Frank Schaeffer
>
>July 2nd, 2004
>
>As a military parent whose son was recently deployed in the Middle East I
>object strongly to Michael Moore's cynical exploitation of our men and
>women in uniform. When a political satire stoops to manipulating young
>soldiers and Marines and their grieving parents to score political points
>something is very wrong. And when a political film like "Fahrenheit 9/11"
>uses the military as fodder for satire aimed at someone else-Bush-then
>feigns respect for those same soldiers the filmmaker is mocking I want to
>tell the film maker he can't have it both ways.
>
>Moore reminds me of a wife beater who brings his wife flowers in the
>morning to assuage his guilt for the black eye he gave her the night
>before. First Moore disrespects the military then he says I really do love
>you. No matter how much he hates Bush getting rid of the current president
>is no excuse for insulting my son and all his military brothers and
>sisters. And Moore's movie is an insult to our men and women.
>
>First it is condescending as Moore pretends to sympathize with our military
>men and women. Then Moore turns downright mean when he portrays our men in
>uniform as mindless thugs. Either way we never hear about patriotism, let
>alone loyalty to other soldiers, let alone who is really in the military or
>why they are there, let alone about all the Marines and soldiers who are
>dead because they hesitated to shoot at enemies hiding behind civilians. We
>see the anomalies not the mainstream. We see exploited African-American
>youth and white crackers and a few conscientious objector types. What we
>don't see is the real military majority-middle class white kids from small
>towns following in their father's footsteps and minorities of all ethnic
>backgrounds who want to give something back to the country they honor.
>
>Moore has every right to say whatever he wants about President Bush. (Just
>for the record I was and am a John McCain supporter.) And Moore has the
>right to edit old video tape to make the President look like a simpering
>fool even if it is grossly unfair. Politics is hardball. Moore makes some
>excellent points about our naive American relationship with the Saudis and
>also about our staggering lack of adequate response when we sent only
>10,000 men to Afghanistan and missed our shot at bin Laden. He also comes
>close to telling the truth about the hysterical paranoia that leads to
>grandmothers being frisked in airports while nothing much is done about our
>real enemies. (Though if we had followed the logic of Moore's movie-the
>Saudis are the real enemy in the movie-and attacked them after 9/11 I bet
>Moore still wouldn't like Bush.)
>
>It is a little hard to take Moore's Bambi approach to the pre-American
>invasion Iraq seriously. Remarkably all we see is in his movie of Saddam's
>Iraq is happy footage of happy children before the Americans bomb them.
>(Bambi as in the scenes in the forest with his mother before the evil
>hunters arrive!) There is no sign of mass graves or gassed Kurds. Iraq
>under Saddam looks like a commercial for an Islamic Disneyland.
>
>Fairytales about happy pre-invasion Iraq aside, Moore crosses the line of
>decency when he uses ambush tabloid-style methods on young military men and
>reduces their lives to cleverly manipulated sound bites to serve his
>political attack. Someone needs to explain to Moore that presidents come
>and go and aren't really all that important (it has been a long time since
>the best and brightest wanted to run and we've had a string of
>second-raters and survived just fine), but that our military IS important.
>We NEED our men and women more than they need us. There really are people
>who want to kill us.
>
>Moore edits some footage of pumped up teenagers in uniform talking about
>the music they listen to when they are getting shot at and shooting back.
>He uses the macho swaggering statements of a few immature soldiers out of
>context, a context where they were trying to pump themselves up to face
>battle with brave and foolish words (or violent music). The fear and horror
>of battle make men do and say many things and until Moore walks in their
>shoes he should back off. Moore manipulates their words to portray an
>entire military campaign as driven by young men listening to heavy metal as
>they gleefully blow away women and children. It is a lie. I have just
>finished editing a collection of letters from hundreds of military men and
>women-"Voices From The Front" - due out this fall, and the letters, not to
>mention all the men and women I know personally, not to mention my son,
>tell another story. They grieve over civilian casualties. But then Moore
>was not trying to tell the truth. He was making propaganda. And that is
>fine too, but not on the backs of men and women who will die for Michael
>Moore and the rest of us tomorrow.
>
>Moore would not know a nuance or a complexity let alone a paradox if it bit
>him. He simplistically portrays a military that only exist to protect the
>"capitalist system" he hates and that he is convinced doesn't work because
>there are some streets in Flint Michigan where the houses aren't very nice.
>(Will he be sharing the 20 million or so he's earned so far this year with
>the "exploited" African-American recruits he interviewed? And when in his
>movie Moore challenges some congressmen to sign up their children for
>military service-a great idea by the way, listen up Ted Kennedy-did Moore
>just happen to forget to also ambush his rich pals in Hollywood? Have any
>of Harvey Weinstein's kids signed up recently? Or does Moore only hate rich
>jerks that vote Republican? Will Moore's kids ever show solidarity with the
>rest of us by enlisting?)
>
>Moore portrays the military men and women as the stooges of rich white men
>and oil companies. The problem is that this is a lie. Many of our men and
>women serving are doing so for patriotic reasons and/or for reasons of
>loyalty to their fellow soldiers. Moore never mentions this. Many others
>come from upper middle class families, like my son. In the world according
>to Moore they don't exist.
>
>My son did not join the Marines to blow away children to rock music. Nor
>did he need college benefits. He joined to be part of something bigger than
>himself. He joined to serve his country. He joined because he wanted
>discipline in his life. He joined for adventure. And he is not alone.
>
>Moore shows his profound ignorance about the real military because he does
>not acknowledge that there are thousands of men and women who may well have
>joined for a utilitarian reason-say college benefits-but who then underwent
>a profound spiritual rebirth in the military. Now they are motivated to
>serve because they want to watch the backs of their fellow soldiers. Moore
>doesn't seem to know that there really are thousands of our people who the
>military has taught to live by a selfless code: the man or woman standing
>next to you is more important than you are.
>
>In some scenes a camera crew follows a grieving mother of a killed soldier
>as she cries. Of course she was carefully chosen so as not to alienate
>Moore's leftist base of support. She was not any old military mom. What
>would Moore's core constituency have made of a mom who cried for her son
>and still wanted Bush to win? Moore is sympathetic to her but only after
>establishing her politically correct credentials. She is wearing a special
>cross that symbolizes diversity and tolerance. And she is in a multiracial
>marriage. This is fine with me by the way. I'm all for tolerance and
>multiracial marriages. In the military that Moore disdains there are plenty
>of mixed race couples, a lot more than in Hollywood. The military, unlike
>the Oscar voters, really is a color-blind meritocracy. In the end Moore
>abuses even his token military mom. Moore hates Bush so much he is willing
>to stoop to following this weeping mother around the perimeter of the White
>House in a bizarre tabloid-style moment of maudlin and insensitive
>exploitation.
>
>In other scenes military men and women are portrayed as fools, killers or
>just dumb white guys, say the two Marine recruiters, following poor black
>young men and trying to fool them into joining Bush's military. I know a
>lot of Marine recruiters and Moore must have worked very hard to edit these
>two into the idiots they come off as. The recruiters I know, and most
>likely these two Marines as well, are bright, dedicated and kind. But then,
>as someone who has made a lot of documentaries myself I know what can be
>done to get a point across when you want to. Moore could make the Pope look
>like Hugh Hefner. Michael Moore is a very good film maker. He's just not a
>very good person.
>
>In all cases the men and women of our military are stripped of dignity in
>Moore's movie. They are portrayed as either mindless killers or manipulated
>victims, never heroes. The only military personnel given more than a ten
>second out-of-context sound bite are the soldiers and Marines Moore finds
>who are against the war in Iraq. They get to say things about how killing
>makes you lose parts of your soul. But the problem is that Michael Moore is
>not really interested even in them. He is interested in politics and is
>using these men as a stick with which to beat the president.
>
>What is so dishonest in his movie is that Michael Moore wants to have it
>both ways. In one interview he says that America is a great country. But
>for the rest of the movie he tells us that we are a nation of easily led
>fools with a fascist/victim military. Moore wants to stir up the anti-war
>crowd on the one hand by showing soldiers killing babies to rock music, and
>exploit the sympathies of the American middle class for our men and women
>on the other hand by showing a crying mother whose son got killed.
>
>(Note to John Kerry: If you really love our military denounce Moore's
>portrayal of our men and women and tell America that you don't want our
>votes if they have to be generated by sinking to Michael Moore's level. Do
>that and I'll vote for you, I'll even work for you!)
>
>It is unfair for a movie maker who will make tens of millions of dollars
>this year from attacking Bush to sandbag some 19 year old Marine, who is
>making $18, 000 a year. Moore has all the intellectual and technical
>weapons Hollywood could give him and a huge team backing him up. The 19
>year old soldier has a high school diploma. Michael Moore is a bully.
>
>Our military men and women deserve better. So do their parents. Moore has
>misrepresented us. For every mother who hates the President for her son's
>death there are fifty others who want us to win in Iraq so their son's
>deaths won't have been in vain. Maybe they are deluded but Moore should at
>least have represented the bereaved parents fairly.
>
>Here are some things I'd like to explain to Michael Moore:
>
>These days the military is the last place you can't opt out of your
>commitment when the going gets rough. Many young men and women who signed
>up did so out of a desire to serve our nation. Most of us military parents
>see that the military has made our children and our families' better less
>selfish people. Our men and women have their bad days and their good days,
>but most of all they are loyal to each other; black or white, male or
>female. They get through each day motivated by taking care of the man or
>woman standing next to them.
>
>Last word to Michael Moore: It's not cool to spit on your military, even
>metaphorically, even if the French do like you for doing it. You can help
>bring down Bush without stooping to this.
>
>Frank Schaeffer is a writer. His most recent books are "Faith Of Our Sons-A
>Father's Wartime Diary" and "Zermatt" a novel, book II of the "Calvin
>Becker Trilogy."
