Michael Moore asserts the following in his political film Fahrenheit 9/11:
Con #1. Bush favors the Bin Laden family over American interests. Regarding the Bin Laden family leaving the country, we as Americans don't punish people for crimes they didn't commit. Releasing them was the civil answer. Imagine if your cousin blew up a building, would you want to go to jail for it? And what do you think the terrorists would have done to our families? Getting them out of the country stemmed a potential lynching, which would have made America look as bad as our enemies. It was the right thing to do.
Con #2. Halliburton and other war corporations are self-serving enemies of America, conspiring with the President for profit and privileges. These are public companies he is attacking. They are owned by millions of stockholders. America owns them.
Moore criticized executive appointments in Iraq and Afghanistan by "exposing" their prior relationships to the President, implying conspiracy. There is no immorality due to those appointed being associates of the President, any more than showing preference in choosing his cabinet. Experienced leaders choose people they like--they don't have to field resumes.
Con #3. Our poor are preyed upon by U. S. military recruiters. That the poor and the middle classes do the majority of the fighting is not a conspiracy of the Bush presidency, but a historical fact of all armies in all nations. Upper class parents hand down a disciplined living structure to their children, while the middle and lower class parents provide limited to no living structure, which is reflected in their economic status. Their children need and should seek the kind of discipline that the military provides, and if they're smart, they carry that rational order into their private lives. Upper class youth already have a plan at that stage, lead self-directed lives much earlier, and therefore avoid the risk of being called into action. Moore's footage defeated his own argument in that the kids at the upscale malls were approached directly and weren't interested; their "influential" parents obviously weren't intervening. (It's a voluntary army, Michael).
Con #4. A negative soldier's viewpoint reveals the immorality of the war. A wounded soldier has good cause to question why he was there in the first place and to believe that war is devastatingly senseless, which is true for the aggressor. But American civilization cannot tolerate the random acts of violence, which are commonplace in Islamic Fundamentalist regions, to happen here. If necessary, we have to rout them out at the source. Twenty year-olds won't have the experience to judge the policy of a nation, but should be able to comprehend right and wrong at a more basic level. We must honor those who fight for us; we must shelter our fallen, but given the blatant horrors of the enemy versus American life, he should know he's on the right side.
Con #5. The Iraq Dictatorship had nothing to do with the war on terrorism. If they're not terrorists, boy do they act like them. Car bombs, abductions, beheadings, anarchy and dictatorship preferred to democracy, suicide missions which murder their own people and offer no peaceful alternative; no, there's no likeness there(!). (If you question our military strategy and the countries we've chosen, look at a map).
Look at the nature of our enemy. Most Americans are civil and constructive--including our troops, while the average insurgent is aggressive and foolish as an individual. If you pulled any insurgent aside for an interview you'd see he is a poorly educated, fear-driven control-freak charged with incoherent dogmatic conclusions he never would have come to on his own. They're all psychologically trapped in the "submission/domination axis" (as Moral Armor calls it), which amounts to little more than roving criminality, veiled as an endless fight for Allah--which is only a substitution for their tantrum against ever being questioned. Their delusional dedication to an all-powerful force against the outsiders who threaten Him ignores a crucial contradiction: If God is all-powerful then He is in no danger, and doesn't need their help.
Con #6. American forces are running amok, targeting innocent civilians. In The Art of War, Sun Tzu says to attack the heart of your enemy. Who has Moore attacked? Whose heart is he after? Did he show you the crippled and burned Americans still struggling to survive after September 11th? No, he showed you Iraqi casualties. All sides have casualties in war, and a movie maker will favor those of like ideology. Whose side are you on Michael? How many heads have we cut off? Such barbarism only strengthens our resolve to win.
Near the end, Moore meekly agrees that "America is a great country." Still, you can't help but get a strong anti-American feeling from the film. It's him telling the rest of us that our world is a sham, our freedom is a lie, and that this dilemma is our own fault. Of course, he fails to mention that we wiped out two dictatorships with a wartime loss amounting to only one-third the casualties they caused us in New York, and we are now paving the way for their most productive citizens to thrive in a civil world community. The aggregate result will be a release of the pent up energy of the people--an Iraqi industrial revolution and a world benefit--new pipelines, skyscrapers and personal freedoms.
It's irresponsible to watch such a movie and draw conclusions based solely on its contents. It is not honest to isolate three aspects of an issue when there are six to consider. Shame on you, Mr. Moore! Summation and Solution. The Koran states that anyone who is not Muslim is the enemy, to be chopped, hacked and slaughtered, plain and simple. There is no room for misinterpretation, and no constructive reasoning with such insanity. Allegiance to life must come before religious or political ideas, and such ideas must be based on the furtherance of the biological life of a man; otherwise, they are wrong.
To the oppressed citizens of the world I say, as a free country, America offers a simple institutional structure--no dogmatic requirements; we're all free to believe what we want--but if you limit or harm others, you're freedom will be taken in turn. The old days are gone--the monarchies, the dictatorships, the communal nightmares--with room only for civility between men into the future. All must respect the human institutions whose fundamental guideline is the preservation of individual life, by outlawing the initiation of force against others. So conform, and live.
It is the obligation of philosophy to provide a constructive course of action in the individual, social, artistic and institutional realms--the full range of human action. Moral Armor does just that, providing the first fully-integrated non-sectarian moral code, and it is based on the nature of Man. No other style of moral code has even a chance to win over there.
The campaign in Iraq was not a new development. Iraq has been a thorn in the world's side ever since the Gulf War when Hussein should have been deposed, and it's too late to turn back now. Terrorist dogma thrives on fresh martyrs; we need a strong leader who will see this through, and our President will. Unfortunately, when one side won't listen to reason, you have to fight, so let's get it over with.
(In the time it took to read this, President Bush had reacted to 9/11).
Ronald E. Springer is the Author/Philosopher of Moral Armor, the world's first fully-integrated moral philosophy based on the nature of Man. Featured on The Mitch Albom Show, NBC and FOX News radio affiliates, Mr. Springer is available for interviews, speaking engagements, philosophy workshops and seminars. Please contact ronaldespringer@moralarmor.com or visit ronaldespringer@moralarmor.com for details. For a free three-part mini-course on morality-based happiness, send a blank email to: ronaldespringer@moralarmor.com.
licensed cleaning services Park Ridge ..Some call it the "unofficial" or "informal" economy, others call... Read More
Even the most devout proponents of free marketry and hidden... Read More
It never fails to amaze me. HM Customs and Excise... Read More
"When you are right you cannot be too radical; when... Read More
Last Summer the Federal Trade Commission came out with a... Read More
Last year a Maryland State Legislator whom I presume never... Read More
Presently Universities and Private Enterprise are working to build more... Read More
Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to Lafayette in 1823 that... Read More
Policemen in many US cities are taking their new authority... Read More
The first reaction of economies in transition is a sharp... Read More
Well the title is absolute Bull Crap, but this article... Read More
Quit paying the DEA to chase marijuana. We could save... Read More
INTRODUCTIONPERHAPS the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not... Read More
Currently the United States has weapons, which can shoot around... Read More
Environmentalists say GM Seeds are bad for the environment, dangerous... Read More
When Boris Yeltsin spoke about an experiment that 'they' wrought... Read More
America is filled with standouts and perserverance; our nation has... Read More
The Federal trade Commission has a rule, which says that... Read More
Many people make a lot of money in war. In... Read More
Many people who are expert in the issue of the... Read More
Sizing up North Korea is important for a war there.... Read More
We are currently seeing a build up in China of... Read More
Unions are angry at the high salary of the executives... Read More
All the indicators show an improving economy and, finally, the... Read More
There are no stupid questions, only stupid people. Ask an... Read More
on demand house cleaning Arlington Heights ..Every conflict has its economic moments and dimensions. The current... Read More
Many times our government regulatory over embellish problems in the... Read More
I'VE ALWAYS ARGUED THAT ECONOMIC ILLITERACY IS VERY COSTLY.This is... Read More
"It is the duty of every citizen according to his... Read More
Well we have certainly been reading a lot about prison... Read More
In the last two weeks, two non-senior US officials indirectly... Read More
"The Jesuit priest John H. Surratt, proven to be the... Read More
I'm starting to feel squeezed by all the political correctness... Read More
The Palestinian Fatah Movement is doing whatever it can to... Read More
Capitalism as the social structure was founded in order to... Read More
In years past California Mutual Assistance Program and emergency response... Read More
In these times when states are suffering extreme downward pressure... Read More
With elections on the horizon and Blair looking tired and... Read More
As we watch fewer Americans voting it is no wonder... Read More
We have known of the innate characteristic need of members... Read More
Societies have always had a problem of what to do... Read More
Rule of Thumb for exporting technology. The American People need... Read More
The more I study the dynamics of WWII the more... Read More
In every national budget, there is a part called "Public... Read More
There is a lot of debate about who made the... Read More
Recently the CIA staged a practice simulation of a cyber... Read More
In typical bureaucratese, the pensive EBRD analyst ventures with the... Read More
Many believe Al-Qaida already has nukes in the United States... Read More
I applaud Monsanto for their R and D. I would... Read More
Is the only way to fight Fundamentalist Extremists becoming one... Read More
Political |