***Dave Does the Blog

I know it’s probably grossly unfair to tackle Michael Moore’s open letter to George Bush four full days after he posted it … but given Moore’s record, I’m not worried about being grossly unfair.

Dear Governor Bush:

Ooooh, that’s the tellin’ him. No legitimate President he, right, Mike? Slick move, calling him just Governor. Yeah, that sets the tone just right.

So today is what you call “the moment of truth,” the day that “France and the rest of world have to show their cards on the table.” I’m glad to hear that this day has finally arrived. Because, I gotta tell ya, having survived 440 days of your lying and conniving, I wasn’t sure if I could take much more. So I’m glad to hear that today is Truth Day, ’cause I got a few truths I would like to share with you:

That would be refreshing.

1. There is virtually NO ONE in America (talk radio nutters and Fox News aside) who is gung-ho to go to war. Trust me on this one. Walk out of the White House and on to any street in America and try to find five people who are PASSIONATE about wanting to kill Iraqis. YOU WON’T FIND THEM!

Pssst. Mike? Dubya hasn’t been talking all these months about killing Iraqis. He’s been talking about regime change. And given how the war’s been prosecuted so far, that seem to be, in fact, the battle plan: take out the Iraqi leadership, not the poor conscripted schmuck-in-the-trenches.

And, yeah, I wouldn’t say that most folks are “gung-ho to go to war.” Most of the pro-war folks consider it a sad necessity. Sorry that there aren’t any mouth-frothers — but would you feel better if there were?

Why? ‘Cause NO Iraqis have ever come here and killed any of us! No Iraqi has even threatened to do that.

Oh, I think we can probably find some speeches by some Iraqis to do that.

You see, this is how we average Americans think: If a certain so-and-so is not perceived as a threat to our lives, then, believe it or not, we don’t want to kill him! Funny how that works!

Of course, that’s the attitude that kept us out of World War II for a couple of years.

2. The majority of Americans — the ones who never elected you —

Mike. Get over it. Really. It’s getting old. Trust me — I voted for Gore.

— are not fooled by your weapons of mass distraction.

Nice turn of phrase.

We know what the real issues are that affect our daily lives — and none of them begin with I or end in Q. Here’s what threatens us: two and a half million jobs lost since you took office, the stock market having become a cruel joke, no one knowing if their retirement funds are going to be there, gas now costs almost two dollars — the list goes on and on. Bombing Iraq will not make any of this go away. Only you need to go away for things to improve.

Bush’s economic policies — “Let’s spend more and tax less!” are, indeed, goofy. But I really can’t blame the current economic situation on the Bush administration. The stock market bubble was already bursting before Bush came anywhere near the White House.

Gas prices have been inflamed (so to speak) by the Iraqi crisis (as well as the Venezuela crisis, but let’s not get complicated here) — but where would gas prices be if Iraq dominated the Gulf region?

“Bombing Iraq” seems to have sent the stock market soaring — and, I suspect, gas prices will ultimately go down because of it. Shall we make a wager?

3. As Bill Maher said last week, how bad do you have to suck to lose a popularity contest with Saddam Hussein? The whole world is against you, Mr. Bush. Count your fellow Americans among them.

What’s Bush’s current approval rating?

Regardless, since when did the right thing necessarily correlate to the popular thing?

Tell me, Mr Moore — do you think that Bush is worse than Saddam? Do you think you would still be alive if you were pursuing your career as professional gadfly in Iraq?

4. The Pope has said this war is wrong, that it is a SIN. The Pope!

I didn’t know you gave much truck to what the Pope has to say, Mike. The Pope also says that homosexual behavior is a sin, that birth control is a sin. Is that your position, too?

But even worse, the Dixie Chicks have now come out against you! How bad does it have to get before you realize that you are an army of one on this war?

I know you hate to realize this, Mike, but the opinions of media personalities and celebrities are really not all that important. I mean, the Dixie Chicks don’t approve of eating meat, either, Mike — how do you feel about that?

Of course, this is a war you personally won’t have to fight. Just like when you went AWOL while the poor were shipped to Vietnam in your place.

Well, there’s a palpable hit. Dubya’s Viet Nam record is pretty damned shameful. Not that it’s any better than his predecessor, to be sure.

On the other hand — what’s your military record, Mr Moore? You turned 18 in 1972 — did you enlist? Are you arguing that only military veterans have a legitimate opinion in this case? Where does your own legitimacy then come from?

5. Of the 535 members of Congress, only ONE (Sen. Johnson of South Dakota) has an enlisted son or daughter in the armed forces! If you really want to stand up for America, please send your twin daughters over to Kuwait right now and let them don their chemical warfare suits. And let’s see every member of Congress with a child of military age also sacrifice their kids for this war effort. What’s that you say? You don’t THINK so? Well, hey, guess what — we don’t think so either!

What’s Senator Johnson’s voting record on the Iraq situation? Is his the only opinion that counts?

Or should we take a poll of parents with children in the armed forces? Have you taken that sort of poll, Mike?

Or maybe we should take a poll of the military personnel actually in the Gulf?

On the other hand, I admit that there would be more moral suasion if those who voted for war actually had children in the balance. Perhaps you should suggest that as a Constitutional Amendment.

6. Finally, we love France. Yes, they have pulled some royal screw-ups. Yes, some of them can be pretty damn annoying. But have you forgotten we wouldn’t even have this country known as America if it weren’t for the French? That it was their help in the Revolutionary War that won it for us? That our greatest thinkers and founding fathers — Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, etc. — spent many years in Paris where they refined the concepts that lead to our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution? That it was France who gave us our Statue of Liberty, a Frenchman who built the Chevrolet, and a pair of French brothers who invented the movies? And now they are doing what only a good friend can do — tell you the truth about yourself, straight, no b.s.

Certainly we owe a lot to the French. And they owe a lot to us (“Lafayette — we are here!”). Maybe George is the one telling Jacques the truth about himself, straight, no BS.

Quit pissing on the French and thank them for getting it right for once.

“Getting it right for once”? Does that mean that they rarely get it right, Mike? Are they getting it right now because they are espousing the position you believe in? Isn’t that rather selective of you, Mike?

You know, you really should have traveled more (like once) before you took over. Your ignorance of the world has not only made you look stupid, it has painted you into a corner you can’t get out of.

Travel does, indeed, broaden the mind.

On the other hand, Bush has a number of folks around him who have travelled extensively. Does that mean that they are wise about the world?

Well, cheer up — there IS good news. If you do go through with this war, more than likely it will be over soon because I’m guessing there aren’t a lot of Iraqis willing to lay down their lives to protect Saddam Hussein.

That does indeed seem to be the case. That seems to be a good thing, doesn’t it?

After you “win” the war, you will enjoy a huge bump in the popularity polls as everyone loves a winner — and who doesn’t like to see a good ass-whoopin’ every now and then (especially when it ‘s some third world ass!).

Why, gee, Mike — that sounds like you don’t respect the opinion of the general public very much. I thought you were touting their opposition to the war as a reason why Bush should give it up.

So try your best to ride this victory all the way to next year’s election. Of course, that’s still a long ways away, so we’ll all get to have a good hardy-har-har while we watch the economy sink even further down the toilet!

Y’know, I will side with Mike on this one. I think that the costs of this war — especially if exacerbated by Bush actually getting his tax cuts through — will further damage the economy, and will probably lose the election for Bush. Of course, that doesn’t mean that this war wasn’t necessary, or right, but I suspect the distinction will be lost on Mike.

But, hey, who knows — maybe you’ll find Osama a few days before the election! See, start thinking like THAT!

Why, Mike — are you implying that Bush knows where OBL is right now, but is holding off capturing him until it’s of political advantage? If so, why not just come out and say it?

Keep hope alive! Kill Iraqis — they got our oil!!

Oh, piss off.

And if that’s not enough critique, consider this. Or this.

(via Andrea)

I love architecture, and so it’s with a little twinge that I see the methodical, surgical demolition of the array of fabulous governmental buildings and palaces that Saddam had built over the past few decades (including during times when his own people were said to be starving under UN sanctions).

But only a twinge. Yeah, just as there’s a fascination about the hubris-in-stone of the old Nazi architecture of Germany, so too there is a fascination in what Saddam wrought. But not only will Iraq be better off without it, the surgical demolition of these structures can only further demoralize the remnants of the government and military leadership.

I regret more the destruction of records in those buildings. It’s that sort of thing that’s important in war crimes trials.

It seems ironic that, thus far, more coalition casualties have come from helicopter accidents, rather than enemy (or even friendly) fire.

I did see one disturbing thing on MSNBC this evening. A hoarse-voiced father of one of the Marines who was killed in actual fighting was angrily holding up a photo to the camera. “I want President Bush to see this. That’s the only son I had.“

And he enlisted in the Marines, sir. I grieve for his loss, though obviously less than you do, but don’t diminish, in your grief, the sacrifice he made, of his own free will.

Some words (far more lyric than the praise heaped about them) on how to fight a war:

Continue reading “How to fight a war”

From a UPI story today, not just some human shields who were disguntled, but some who were “shocked back to reality.”

A group of American anti-war demonstrators who came to Iraq with Japanese human shield volunteers made it across the [Jordanian] border today with 14 hours of uncensored video, all shot without Iraqi government minders present. Kenneth Joseph, a young American pastor with the Assyrian Church of the East, told UPI the trip “had shocked me back to reality.” Some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera “told me they would commit suicide if American bombing didn’t start. They were willing to see their homes demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam’s bloody tyranny. They convinced me that Saddam was a monster the likes of which the world had not seen since Stalin and Hitler. He and his sons are sick sadists. Their tales of slow torture and killing made me ill, such as people put in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so they could hear their screams as bodies got chewed up from foot to head.”

This is the sort of the stuff that was dismissed as CIA-fabricated propaganda, a few months (and years) ago.

(via Ghost of a Flea)

Okay, there’s a million-zillion things that could still go horribly, horribly wrong. But …

The trickiest part of the Iraq war will be bringing it to a completion, and making sure that it completes in a controlled fashion.

Turkey sending troops into the north? Bad sign.

Accounts of negotiations between some Iraqi officials and third countries? Bad sign.

The idea everyone’s sort of had is either a “Berlin Bunker” style of wrapping the war up, or else a “Strung Up in the Street” style of Saddam’s end, with the Iraqi army either destroyed or laying down its arms at that point.

The more other parties deal themselves in en route to victory, the messier this all becomes. Imagine, for example, if France announced that it had reached an agreement with Tariq Aziz, acting for an incapacitated Saddam Hussein, to have Hussein shipped to a third party, and Aziz take over, with promises to disarm fully, if a cease-fire is declared — would the US coalition realistically be able (or, more important, willing) to say no?

If there is a cease-fire before Baghdad is securied, it’s going to be 1991 all over again.

Remind me again about how Canada is such a polite country? Oh, well, it was just the French Canadians booing during “The Star Spangled Banner” at the Islanders/Canadiens game in Montreal, I’m sure.

(The Islanders won, 6-3.)

(via A Small Victory)

Or, “Winning the Battle, Losing the War”

Street protests in San Francisco have resulted in over a thousand arrests. Most of the demonstratoins were peaceful (though there were some fringe exceptions), and consisted of blocking traffic.

And this is supposed to stop the war … how?

Ah, because the general populace, seeing the conviction on the faces of the protesters, will realize this is all Dubya’s fault, and rise up in righetous anger against Da Man.

Or maybe not.

“We don’t want to alienate people. I hope people realize that political murder merits action that inconveniences them,” said Quinn Miller, 32.
His hope went unanswered among some of the people who were late to work or unable to maneuver through downtown.
“You suck,” yelled Larry Chu, stuck in his car outside the Transamerica Pyramid. “Why don’t you all go to North Korea and do this?”

The general view of most of the nation is that San Francisco is probably as opposed, as a whole, to this war as anywhere in the country. Stunts like this are likely to change some minds — away from the protesters.

Or, as one person put it …

“I’m definitely anti-war, but at the same time, we’re trying to live our lives here,” fumed Mark Thedis as he spent 30 minutes in his idling Range Rover in an alleyway off Folsom Street. “If they’re trying to get people on their side, it’s not working.”

Folks have been pooh-poohing the Iraq/al-Qa’eda Connection. Maybe they shouldn’t have been.