The Burning (of) Bush

Fahrenheit 9/11 made a quiet debut in Washington state yesterday. Last night, Lisa and I caught its first showing at Midnight at the Woodinville Loews cineplex. There were a couple of surprises for me. First, with all the right wing furor over the film, there wasn't anybody there protesting outside the theater. Second, I was surprised to see that there wasn't a huge line outside waiting to get in. We bought our tickets online, so it was a pretty quick trip inside. The theater didn't actually fill to capacity, but there were a lot of people inside by the time the movie started.

Most of you reading this have not yet seen it, so I won't go into the heavy details about the movie. Of course, if you're a news junkie like me, chances are good you know what's going to be in it. In a broad outline, the documentary goes from the end of the 2000 election (revelation: not one member of the senate stood with signed and willing members of the House Congressional Black Caucus in protest of the election results. Not senate president Gore, not Democratic party leader, Tom Daschle), to the Bush family connection with the Saudis, to Bush's military record, to Bush's business dealings (and failures), to 9/11 (in a powerful bit of film-making, Michael Moore leaves the screen black as the audience listens the sounds of people screaming as the planes hit the Twin Towers; I cried and grimaced the whole time, emotions flooding back more powerfully than on 9/11 when I sat there numb watching the TV). The film then covers a bit of the war in Afghanistan, and then finally, the Iraq invasion and its after-effects.

It's hard for me to say how I feel about it without showing my true colors (Ha! You should know them by now). I'm already biased against Bush and the Neocons that I can't do an object review of the film. Of course, I'm not a professional reviewer, and as most reviewers worth their salt would tell you, it's impossible to give reviews without your personal feelings somehow leaking through. That being said, I'll tell you that I admired the film (it's hard to call it a true documentary because of its heavy bias) for its guts. I personally wasn't interested too much in the conspiracy theory part (the Bush-bin Laden family connection, the prior business dealings with the Taliban, the Reagan/Rumsfeld backing of Saddam in the Iraq-Iran war, the Reagan backing of Osama bin Laden in Soviet-Afghanistan conflict, the Bush/Saudi/Afghan close ties in an oil conglomerate), but anyone looking for reasons to fault Bush's motivation and actions leading up to the war and after will have plenty of things to draw upon; read the source material, Craig Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud for more info). Of course, I'm furious to find out that on the days following 9/11 while commercial flights were grounded in the US, the White House approved of the evacuation of Saudi nationals, including members of the bin Laden family, by plane back to Saudi Arabia. This has since been confirmed. The argument is that if a president puts the interests of his "former" business associates (as well as their nation, which supplied most of the 9/11 killers) before those of his country, then he at best is accountable for his actions and responsible to explain his actions. At worst, this conflict of interest shows he is not capable of holding his office.

The bits that are most interesting are the aspects of the war, both in Afghanistan and Iraq. You see preparations, postulate on the motivations (WMD, oil pipelines through Afghanistan, etc). You see combat footage. But the film is at its most powerful when it focuses on the Iraq conflict's true victims: the people of Iraq and the American soldiers assigned to the conflict. One of the most memorable and effective images was home video footage of Iraqi families in their day to day lives, in work and at play. You see families shopping, playing with each other. Not the imagery that we are allowed to see of these people. It's so easy to justify bombing and shooting them when you can't identify with them. There's footage of interviews with soldiers that show how isolated and disillusioned many of them are. It also shows footage of them shot up, maimed, and screaming. It shows footages of flag-draped coffins. Again, stuff we're not allowed to see. Not so much of a "cake walk", huh? Later on you get a segment of Bush playing commander-in-chief flyboy, when he lands on a carrier deck. "Believe it or not, I'm walking on air" plays in the background as Bush mugs for photos with the sailors. The "Mission Accomplished" banner hangs dubiously as he gives his speech.

Moore also brings it back into personal perspective. A native of Flint, MI, he walks around town and follows the lives of poor teens (mostly black), so poor they have little recourse but to join the military. He follows the Lipscomb family, whose patriotic matron (with a family history of military service; she runs up a flag dutifully every day with reverence) previously supported the war and had contempt for liberals and war protestors. That is, until her own sun was killed when his Blackhawk helicopter crashed in the Iraqi desert. Her reading of his final letter home (full of love for family and dislike for Bush) is heart-wrenching. Towards the end of the movie, we see her in Washington DC, after confronting a war supporter, standing in front of the White House ("I have a place to put all my anger.."). Then, to emphasize the difference between the policy-makers and those who must have to fight and die to defend those policies, Moore gives us footage of crippled veterans (whose benefits are casualties of Bush budget cuts) and cutting back to Moore trying to get congressmen to enlist their son into active duty (only one congressman's son is in Iraq). You know, it always amazes me that right wing can convince poor people that it is on their side, when we know that tax cuts benefit the poor the least, and that it is a historical fact that the right wing marginalizes the poor with economic policies, and finally, the ones who can't afford to get special treatment in the military are poor. Some of the most fevered defenders of the right are the very bottom rung of the ladder. Amazing. Sad. (Sorry, that's not reviewing. It's ranting. But watching the footage of the poor recruits only gives me more fuel...) It's heartening to see that many of these vets have turned away from the Republican party and will be working hard to unseat Bush.

The movie doesn't put all the blame on Bush's shoulders. Some of it goes to Congress, and mainly to the Democrats who, weak-kneed, went along with the Supreme Court election decision and signed on to give Bush the authority to go to war. It also criticizes Congress for voting to pass the Patriot Act, when it is told that perhaps no one in Congress even read it before voting for it. One of the funniest moments in the movie is when we see Moore driving around in an ice cream truck, reading the contents of the act as congressmen on the street look on. It is a reminder that they gave this administration the go-ahead to prey upon our fears (the alert color system is given its fair share of disdain in the movie) and to step on our civil liberties. And they gave him the green light to put our people in danger in Iraq. While this movie is a condemnation of a presidency, it is a wake up call to hold everyone in office accountable.

This isn't so much of a review as it is a way for me to segue into a political rant. I'll admit, that as powerful and effective as the movie is, there are flaws. It's a little too smug and sarcastic (an artsy snobbery) in some spots, where it should be more direct. And for me, Moore didn't need to be seen on screen at all. But overall, this is a movie worth seeing. Most of us on the left already feel the same way, and probably know all the arguments made by Moore. But it reinforces our beliefs, and makes it known where we should put our anger. Who says that it isn't propaganda? I'm truly hoping that this movie will draw as many Bush supporters into the theater as there are Bush critics. Moore's intent was to make an impact on this year's election, and there's a good chance that it will turn some staunch Bush supporters into wavering doubters. Even if there aren't too many right wingers who will stop supporting Bush because of the revelations in the movie, at least they will know what we are thinking.