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June 27, 2004
The Movie
You should see the movie everyone else is seeing if for no other reason than to see truly how terrible even "modern" warfare is. You can debate on whether or not it was worthwhile to take out Saddam (as this very singularly seems to be the only worthwhile thing to come out of the whole adventure) but if a top priority of yours is supporting the troops I think it's clear that the best thing for them would be to not have a President that would send them into this sort of situation again.
It's such a difficult issue...in October 2002 I would have counted myself a supporter of some sort of action in Iraq back when the details hadn't emerged yet. As war got closer though I was a more vehement objector to it. I'm not asking for some sort of prize because of this "prescience" but I do think that myself, like about 40% of America, can see both sides of this issue -- wanting to do something while at the same time not wanting to do just anything.
When you look back at polls at one time nearly 80% of the country supported this war and now even at its lows nearly 40% still do. My guess is that a fairly sizable bloc of that 40% wouldn't support it if it were "Kerry's War" or "Gore's War" and so that leaves about 60% of the country that isn't willing to follow their chosen leader off of a cliff.
And that's good news. And I think it's good news for Kerry, because while the first impression many voters may have gotten from Bush's negative ads was that he was a flip flopper and that Bush was a strong leader, I think the more they think about it, "flip flopping" shows at least signs of being able to second guess yourself -- or in Bush's case your cronies. As for being a "strong leader" well look where it's led us.
Also, although many people on both sides of the aisle will write off Fahrenheit 911 as merely a "Bush bashing fest" I think it continues the theme of Moore's earlier movie about the culture of fear that we live in, how it is exploited and the truly terrible things that happen when pessimism becomes the primary motivator in people's decision making. And despite Bush and Rove's hopes, just saying that things are OK is becoming less and less of a replacement for things actually being all right.
Posted by Chris at June 27, 2004 01:16 PM
Comments
How surprising that people start to disapprove of a war when they see that people really die in it. I'm shocked.
As for the rest, we're not scared enough. I was in NYC on 9/11, you just have no idea how scared we all should be.
Posted by: Karol at July 4, 2004 04:59 PM
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