Let us see Farenheit

WE EXPECT that the Trinidad and Tobago public will soon have the opportunity of seeing Farenheit 9-11, the documentary film made by Michael Moore which won the top prize at the recent Cannes Film Festival and is now breaking box office records in the United States. We hope the documentary will shortly be showing in TT cinemas not simply because of the international acclaim it has received as a work of cinematic journalism but, more relevant to this newspaper, because it serves in a dramatic way to support and justify all that we have had to say about the absurdity of the Bush administration and their illegal pre-emptive invasion of Iraq. For one thing, Moore’s film contains extensive footage of the suffering and carnage which the Bush blitz inflicted on the Iraqi people and their country, scenes of destruction which the American media, covering the “war,” deliberately and purposely ignored.

Thanks to this courageous Canadian film-maker, the US population is for the first time being confronted with a graphic record of what their bombs and soldiers did to Iraq in the execution of a fraudulent and unprovoked war. This act of brutality, in which thousands of innocent women and children were slaughtered, is what this newspaper had warned about when we attacked Bush’s decision to invade Saddam Hussein’s country in a unilateral pre-emptive strike which had also provoked opposition from across the world. In failing to report on the horror of the attack, not even caring to adequately assess the extent of death and devastation, the American media have displayed an unbelievable bias and, in the words of British novelist John Le Carre, have abdicated their responsibility and betrayed their readers. Clearly they were prepared to accept Bush’s dismissal of this terrible toll as simply “collateral damage,” thus virtually prostituting their role as “agents of enlightenment.”

It was always our view that the end of eliminating Saddam Hussein — who, in fact, presented no threat to the US or any other country — could never justify the means which resulted in the death and mutilation of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens and the wholesale demolition of the country. Not to mention the more than 800 American soldiers who lost their lives in this unwarranted and foolish war. We have also wondered about the complacency of the American public over the duplicity of the Bush administration in launching this invasion and the level of support he continues to enjoy. Former President Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky, but Bush remains virtually unscathed for lying to the entire world, insulting the United Nations, creating almost irreparable international discord, intensifying hatred for the US particularly among the Arab people, making the world a far more dangerous place and unilaterally invading a country for totally fictitious reasons.

Now that Americans are flocking to see Michael Moore’s film, the truth and the implications of the actions of their inept President and his administration may finally dawn upon them. And they may now see the need to hold him accountable. As for the dictator Saddam Hussein his fate is sealed but, again, our stand has always been to regard the declaration of war as an absolute last resort and, in our age of multi-lateral cooperation particularly among democratic countries, it should have the sanction and support of the United Nations. Bush’s invasion of Iraq was the action of a reckless bully, a dangerous animal in our day and age. The legacy he leaves in that sad country underscores the maxim that violence begets violence.