Revisiting Ferenheit 9 - 11

First of all - no need to remind anybody that next week is yet Another anniversary of 9 - 11.   We have one every year.  It's this anual ritual we go through reaffirming the message "Be afraid, very afraid".  I would note that Michael More's last listed movie was in 2009, which is some five years ago and counting, and I'm wondering why.  Why are there so few movies critical of the Bush Administration out now?  It's almost as though the liberal community has lost its collective tongue.  Needless to say that in the past ten years since 2004 when Ferenheit 9 - 11 came out, the climate in this country has turned entirely more adverse to liberals and dissidents out there.  Movie makers like Michael Moore and Oliver Stone were on a roll for a while- - but not today.  Instead all we see in the theaters are elaborate productions by conservative film makers, and presumably large revenues from those films.  But here is a 9 - 11 synopsis, with important anotations by me in blue font. The original red turns out not to be a good contrasting color here.

The movie begins by suggesting that friends and political allies of George W. Bush at Fox News Channel tilted the election of 2000 by prematurely declaring Bush the winner. It then suggests the handling of the voting controversy in Florida constituted election fraud.  Let’s comment right here that Fox News is tightly connected with a Saudi Arabian family.  And I would just mention by coincidence that Sean Hannity went national the day before 9 – 11.

The film then segues into the September 11 attacks. Moore says Bush was informed of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center on his way to an elementary school. Let’s stop the film right here.  President Bush claims he “watched the first plane hit that building” and cracked a joke about how “somebody is really a lousy pilot”.  Nobody else SAW the first plane hit except for one obscure long shot photo later on showing the attack on the north side of the building and by watching the sun shadow, you see an explosion go off BEFORE the plane hits the building.  Also BOTH planes had a strange device strapped to the bottom of the plane.  What was it?  Also, how were these Islamic terrorists able to overpower the pilot in a hi-jacking since hijacking had pretty much gone out of style over the previous thirty years.  Why was NORAD ordered to “stand down” despite explicit repeated warnings of “Possible attacks by Islamists in this country using airplanes”.  Bush is then shown sitting in a Florida classroom with children. When told that a second plane has hit the World Trade Center and that the nation is "under attack", Bush allows the students to finish their book reading, and Moore notes that he continued reading for nearly seven minutes.  It has been remarked that if the President himself KNEW about the attacks ahead of time- it would be like staying there till confirmation of “Mission accomplished”.  This is why the President seemingly did not appear upset with news of the SECOND attack.

Moore then discusses the complex relationships between the U.S. government and the Bush family; and between the bin Laden family, the Saudi Arabian government, and the Taliban, which span over three decades. Moore alleges that the United States government evacuated 24 members of the bin Laden family on a secret flight shortly after the attacks, without subjecting them to any form of interrogation.  Thom Hartman has also made the charge that after the 9 – 11 attacks President Bush agreed to take the troops stationed in Saudi Arabia since the first Gulf War out of there because the troops were “an invasion of Holy Ground”.

It was later revealed that Bath made an investment of $50,000 while representing Salem bin Laden of the Saudi Binladin Group. This fact became controversial after the September 11, 2001 attacks due to Salem bin Laden being an older, half-brother of Osama bin Laden, who is alleged to have planned and financed the attacks. Upon Salem bin Laden's death in a 1988 airplane crash, in Texas, his interest in Arbusto (along with other Binladin Group assets), passed to Khalid bin Mahfouz.

Moore moves on to examine George W. Bush's Air National Guard service record. Moore contends that Bush's dry-hole oil well attempts were partially funded by the Saudis and by the bin Laden family through the intermediary of James R. Bath. Moore alleges that these conflicts of interest suggest that the Bush administration is not working for the best interests of Americans. The movie continues by suggesting ulterior motives for the War in Afghanistan, including anatural gas pipeline through Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean.

Moore alleges that the Bush administration induced a climate of fear among the American population through the mass media. Moore then describes purported anti-terror efforts, including government infiltration of pacifist groups and other events, and (notably after a key democrat received an Anthrax laced letter, who might have been critical of the Patriot Act on insisted that its provisions be examined more thoroughly) the signing of the USA PATRIOT Act.

The documentary then turns to the subject of the Iraq War, comparing the lives of the Iraqis before and after the invasion. The citizens of Iraq are portrayed as living relatively happy lives prior to the country's invasion by the U.S. military. The film also takes pains to demonstrate supposed war cheerleading in the U.S. media and also getting NBC to fire Phil Donehew, .long time TV daytime talk show host, because of his anti war stance as kind of a not so subtle message to any other NBC personality who would oppose the upcoming War, and general bias of journalists, with quotes from news organizations and embedded journalists. Moore suggests that atrocities will occur in Iraq and shows footage depicting U.S. abuse of prisoners.

Later in the film, Lila Lipscomb appears with her family after hearing of the death of her son, Sgt. Michael Pedersen, who was killed on April 2, 2003, in Karbala. Anguished and tearful, she begins to question the purpose of the war.

Tying together several themes and points, Moore compliments those serving in the U.S. military. He claims that the lower class of America are always the first to join the Army, so that the people better off do not have to join. He states that those valuable troops should not be sent to risk their lives unless it is necessary to defend America. The credits roll while Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" plays.

Moore dedicated the film to his friend who was killed in the World Trade Center attacks and to those servicemen and women from Flint, Michigan that have been killed in Iraq. The film is also dedicated to "countless thousands" of civilian victims of war as a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The charge has been made that Bush and Dick Chaney are basically Sociopathic personalities, from a psychological perspective.  Some say the "trauma over the death of his unborn sister" warped young George's personality at an early age.  Maybe it was all the crack and booze that numbed his mind and his soul.  Conservatives give George W's dubious record of military service a pass.  One is left to wonder just what it was about George W's character that qualified him for the highest office in the land.  Rush Limbaugh stated that Gulf War I was fought "To maintain the free flow of Oil at market prices" and we know that Rush Limbaugh was highly critical of any republican who preferred Pat Buchannon (who later was opposed to the Iraq War) as opposed to George W Bush.  We know that George W expressly told the American people he did not believe America "should be the policemen of the world".  We know that George W Bush found the oddest things to be funny such as cracking jokes about Carla Fe Tucker's please for mercy so she wouldn't be executed by the state of Texas.  We have Bush's remarks in 1999 about "Having a successful war and building political capital".   His father had a "successful war" in that it came to an end and achieved it's goals.  When asked when we would win the "war on terror" Bush responded "We are never going to win IT".   Like Obama he seemed to be saying it was impossible to completely defeat "Islamic terror".  We have Bush's remarks about "Somebody must be a lousy pilot" and continued joking about "Where did the weapons of mass destruction go- - they aren't under the desk - - ".   Bush would not let the inspecters FINISH their jobs before starting the Iraq War.  They at that time were CLOSE to issuing their final report, but Bush had to start the War before that happened.  In fact there is an alltogether "lack of closure" on anything.  I too wanted complete revenge against the perpetraters of 9 - 11 - - and then some.   BUT the difference is-  for me there would come a POINT when we received some sort of "Closure" and "went back to normal".  Bush never wanted this to happen.  There were no Al Qaeda in Iraq before 9 - 11.  But we actually gave ISIS the military trucks and weapons to fight their war with.  Because Meliki's pathetic army just cut and run and LEFT all that equipment there- - for ISIS to use- - just as it was Ronald Reagan's Afghanistan policy that actually fueled Al Qaeda to begin with.

People what the force is that Empowers these Islamic extremists.  Assad was western educated, and turned out to be a ruthless dictator.  We see people from Britain and even America rushing to recruit with ISIS to fight.  What do they see in this by way of glory?   You can't use the Bible to finger Islam in general as some sort of Devil religion.  The Jacob and Esau analogy won't work.  And the only time the Bible talks about the spiritual condition of Ishmael, the child of the slave woman- - this is not refering to Islam but to Judaism itself and those in "bondage to the law".  It raises an interesting notion however because it almost seems as if "Bondage" in whatever form- - even bondage to a good thing such as "The Law" is so inherently bad - - that bondage to ANYTHING is inherently bad.  One would therefore assume that bondage to any Religion is "Bad".  About the closest thing you can find in the Bible regarding hostility to Islam is the story of Giodian and his war with the Midianites- - kind of first cousins to the Arab peoples.  Now of course the President is talking about forming another Grand Coalition of NATO forces against ISIS.  Well the last such "grand NATO coalition' against Qadafi didn't turn out too good, because the old adage came true "Be careful what you wish for; you just might get it".   And the whole NATO sanctions thing against Russia isn't working.  Experts say that it's the West rather than Russia that is suffering now economically.  Pat Buchannon has stated that "All these sanctions will do is drive the Russian Federation into the arms of China and others such as Brazil- - who want to take the US dollar out of the trade loop entirely".   It kind of strikes me as interesting that people may go to the Mideast as "skeptics" about Islam, and come away pretty much sold in the just cause of the Muslem peoples.  And one of the things you hear said about these Islamics is that they want to "drive Israel into the sea" and somehow we in the United States believe "Well they are anti semite or there are many verses in the Bible about how evil Muslems are".   Of course there aren't.  But even if I had no political bias at all- - I'd at least want to stop and think "Why is it that no matter what we do in the Mideast the other side grows only increasingly powerful with each passing day".   I would also wonder about this line of Islamics that the US is the Great Satan and Israel is the little Satan.  If they were really "Anti Jehovah God of the Bible" would not they refer to Israel itself as "The Great Satan" and not the United States?  (Selah)  I would note something though about the first Gulf War in 1991.  They say that "If Israel is bomb then of COURSE they will fight back".  You will remember in 1991 in an action that really puzzled me was Israeli urban areas were hit with scud missiles and there was no Iron Done defense system in those days and many people were killed, and yet Israel did not retaliate, because the United States informed them that such retaliation against Hussein would hurt the war effort.  And in this latest slaughter in Gaza a few weeks ago-  I have heard that Israel stopped bombing precisely when this government TOLD them to stop the bombing and that it had gone on long enough.  That's just something to think about.