Farenheit 9/11

We watched his movie a couple of days ago. Michael Moore is kind of an ass, isn't he? He's basically just like Rush Limbaugh except from the left point of view. Still, we were able to separate the information from the obnoxiousness.

Obnoxious: Michael Moore creating an inner monologue for George Bush as he sat in that classroom after hearing about the attack on the World Trade Center.

Information: It took George Bush seven minutes to act after hearing that we were under attack from terrorists.

Now some people have said that they give Bush a break for his seven minutes of inaction. One friend of mine made a pointed case by stating he was dumbfounded and shocked by what happened. He sympathized with Bush. I understand that. And I would never criticize a person for their reaction to 9/11... except if that person were the Commander in Chief. And still I am not criticizing Bush as a person, but as the president of the United States. We expect more from our leaders. We expect them to be able to react better than the rest of us. We expect them to lead us. Bush failed as a leader when it counted most. And that's what that scene meant to me.

Obnoxious: Moore's attempt to hint that Bush might have wanted 9/11 to happen to give him a reason to attack Iraq which would help his friend's and family's business interests.

Information: Bush's friends and families greatly benefited financially from the war against Iraq.

I don't think there is any doubt that Bush used the war in Iraq to help his big business friends. Did he start the war in Iraq for purely monetary reasons? I don't think so. I think it was just a side benefit for him. Bush believes in a black and white world. He believes he is on the white horse and the his enemies ride the black one. He probably really believes that attacking Iraq will make the United States safer. But there is no question that money was a part of the war.

Information: Bush's administration arranged for 23 members of the Bin Laden family to leave the US on September 13. None of them were questioned by law enforcement as to the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden.

There's no obnoxious side to this one. This is crazy. In any murder, you ask the family of the suspect questions. I imagine part of the reason they were flown out was because the family was scared of reprisals from the American public. Well, sorry, but you know what there are a lot murder victims and if the family knew where to find Osama Bin Laden, they needed to be questioned. Bush chose to safeguard the members of the murderer's family instead of doing everything possible to find the murderer.

Update: Turns out this is not correct. Moore makes you think they left on September 13, but really the family left on September 20 after air traffic had resumed mostly normal operations. Also, they were questioned by the FBI. *sigh* I hate being manipulated. Source: factcheck.org

There's a lot of painful scenes toward the end where Moore uses the grief of a mother of a slain US soldier to attack Bush. I found much of that distasteful. The woman's grief was palpable, but Moore's use of it for purely political purposes was disturbing.

Overall, I am glad I saw it. It certainly has to be taken with lots of salt, but there is truth there and anyone who won't admit that has their eyes closed.