Boy! People are really worked up about Michael Moore's movie. Who would have thought? All because Cannes (remeber the Jury had Americans in it!) voted it the most important movie of the Festival.
There's a lot of noise about Michael's propagandist techinques, as if this was new. Michael has always used this technique and nobody complained about it before, now that it attacks the media as well as W. they are all worked up about it.
Michael's contribution to the political debate is itself already an achievement, let's not forget that. It is because of him that we are talking
the important things.
Instead of trying to kill the messenger the media and the W. himself should start talking about the important things as well. Let's talk about the non-existent link between Iraq and Al-Qaeda! Let's talk about the non-existant Weapons of Mass Destruction! Let's talk about the fake president that didn't even have the courage to stand up and politely leave a room while the planes crashed into the Twin Towers!
1- The NON-EXISTANT link between Al-Qaeda and Iraq
The White House clearly tried to establish a link between Al-Qaeda and Iraq in a letter sent to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate on March 18, 2003 (1,3). This was only one of many attempts that were then spread through the media:
a) On June 2003, according to USA Today 70% of americans believed in that link.(2)
b) In a Knight Ridder poll from January 2003, 44 percent of Americans reported that either "most" or "some" of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Iraqi citizens. The answer is zero. (3)
Since then it has been made clear that the link did not exist. Even before the USA Today poll, on February 5, 2003 the BBC already reported: "There are no current links between the Iraqi regime and the al-Qaeda network, according to an official British intelligence report seen by BBC News."(4)
2- Weapons of mass disappearance
Ostensibly the reason offered by the W. administration to their British allies to use for internal consumption was the hypothetical existence of "weapons of mass destruction".
These weapons, however, did not appear to exist at the time they were denounced to exist(5). Not only that, but it has since been proven that the Bush people lied (most notably Colin Powell) to the international community!(5,6)
The issue has not been free of trouble for Tony Blair either(7).
The conclusion is that there were no weapons in the country that would justify an invasion even in the false assumption that there would have been a link between Saddam and Osama.
Why Michael is important
Michael's movies are not journalistic pieces. Their are pieces of entertainment that talk about important issues in a light, yet important way. It is very important that he be faithful to the facts while making his case (his credibility depends on that), but it is also important that "the main-stream media" learn a lesson and start talking about thorny issues that Michael has raised.
Let him be the nasty controversial guy, complain about him, but for our own sake stop writing about him and start writing about the facts. Tell us the
whole truth not just the lazy facts that you receive (already cooked up in fit-for-print press releases) from the White House and the Corporations!
We are adults and smart enough to know where Michael is lying if you just give us the FACTS, ALL THE FACTS so that we can also see where the White House and the Corporations are lying to us. Why don't you talk about
those lies?
(1)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030319-1.html
(2)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-09-06-poll-iraq_x.htm
(3)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0314/p02s01-woiq.html
(4)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2727471.stm
(5)
Disarming Iraq: The Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Hans Blix, Bloomsbury 18 Mar 2004
(6)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030205-1.html
(7)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3351915.stm
