In Michael Mooreland, President Bush is a moronic cowboy, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were corrupt, there was no threat to America from terrorism, and the only person who can see the truth is⊠Michael Moore. This film is a half-baked, agitprop conspiracy fantasy. Letâs be fair. Not all his allegations are totally off the wall. Heâs right to point up the disturbing links between the US administration, the Saudi regime and the bin Laden family, as well as the ludicrous bumblings of homeland security.
But after that, the film simply takes off into the higher lunacies of conspiracy theory. You might think the US flattened the Taleban because they had been harbouring al Qaeda. Think again â it was all to put in a puppet government to secure a lucrative contract to lay an oil pipeline to the Caspian Sea. But hang on â this means that, according to Moore, Bush was both in the pocket of the Saudis and chose to pulverise their Taleban buddies. Some confusion here? Richard Clarke, the former US counter-terrorism expert, is presented as a heroic whistleblower. Yet Clarke actually claimed sole responsibility for escorting the bin Laden clan out of the country after 9/11 âa move Moore uses as a weapon against President Bush. But hey, what are actual facts, let alone consistency, when thereâs a roaring prejudice to stoke?
To be a moonbat is to embrace doublethink.
Next, Moore would have you believe that the terrorist threat to America was all invented by President Bush in order to serve his friendsâ financial interests. Forget 9/11. Forget all the evidence that persuaded Bushâs predecessor, President Clinton, of the threat from rogue states combining with terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. Moore believes this threat was entirely fabricated by President Bush, and all those Americans who believed it are made to look stupid.
Moore also recently checked into a hospital for lip reattatchment.
| Sewed them on the wrong end, did they? |
Indeed, what is so striking is the deep contempt Moore has for his fellow Americans, and the bottomless regard for himself. For Mooreland is populated by the stupid, credulous or corrupt â except, or course, for Michael Moore. And then we get to Iraq. Here the filmâs lies turn disgusting. For pre-invasion Iraq is portrayed as a happy, relaxed place with carefree, smiling people â until the Americans start dropping bombs on it for no good reason. Thereâs no mention whatever of the terror inflicted on the Iraqi people by Saddam, the hundreds of thousands killed or tortured by his regime.
No mention that, way before George W Bush, the Clinton administration was convinced that Saddam and al Qaeda were linked. Instead, just grisly pictures of the casualties of war, the gross exploitation of the grieving mother of a dead soldier, and the lie that Saddam never killed or threatened any American (presumably the assassination attempt on George Wâs father during a visit to Kuwait in April 1993 doesnât count). And all punctuated by manipulated footage of the current President designed to present him as moronic or malign. Will such a farrago of paranoid distortions and ideological spite have any effect? You bet. The preview audience, overwhelmingly composed of our fashionable movers and shakers, applauded wildly.
The usual beauzeaux, of course. |