Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

Review by: David Brown
Date: 7/18/04

In Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore tries to have it both ways. He portrays George W. Bush as both a sly, scheming manipulative chief executive and a flat-out dumb guy. I’m not sure it’s possible that anyone, much less this president, could be both.

I’ve always been of the opinion that Bush is a flat-out dumb guy surrounded by sly, scheming manipulative goons. Personally I don’t think Bush is that bad a guy, and Moore’s film did little to convince me otherwise. But the film provided plenty of evidence that Bush should not be our president, a sentiment I have held from the day I first laid eyes on the bugger.

The connections Bush makes between the bin Laden family and Bush are intriguing, but ultimately I’m not sure Bush acted inappropriately in the wake of 9/11 (at least until the Iraq build-up). I also refuse to convict him and his administration from not doing enough to prevent the attacks of that day. It was a brilliantly-executed, diabolical plan that worked to horrific perfection. The bad guys slipped one by us. Any attempts to blame Bush or his administration are either a form of understandable outrage from the victims’ families or political low blows from the Democrats. There’s plenty of blame to go around—let’s not reserve it all for Bush.

It’s reasonable to believe that American interests are served by close ties among the Bushes and the Saudi royal family. Saudi Arabia is the key country in the key region in the world. We desperately need friends there. But Moore’s attention to this relationship does raise valid questions. What has all this camaraderie gotten us? Shouldn’t the Saudis have done more to help us fight terrorism? Why do they only recently seem to be getting the message? In the film, Moore focuses on conspiracy theories involving Osama bin Laden’s relatives when he should have been asking more pointedly why the United States hasn’t been tougher on Saudi Arabia over the last three years.

Before Moore takes on Iraq, he uses his skill as a humorist to blast the media’s bandwagon coverage of terror threats. We are treated to a hilarious compilation of serious news clips about potential threats and ways to protect ourselves from nuclear annihilation. Ah, it seems so long ago that people here in D.C. were stocking up on duct tape in order to seal off their doors and windows from toxic gas. News outlets were happy to fan the flames of paranoia by offering useless hints for protecting you and your family from a flaming 747 or nuclear radiation as if these were nuisances that could be sufficiently brushed off like UV rays or telemarketers.

But the most effective part of Moore’s film is the footage from Iraq. There are graphic scenes of violence, including video of dead and wounded children and the charred remains of American contractors being dragged through the streets. It’s very difficult to watch, particularly because few Americans have seen it. The media won’t show us the true costs of this war because it might upset us or our children. Or it might attract criticism of the war, and Republicans would have a field day decrying the liberal bias of the press.

But Americans need to see this carnage. Our troops see it everyday in Iraq. And more and more of them seem to be growing disenchanted with their commander-in-chief, as do the parents of the dead soldiers. Moore chronicles one family’s loss in the movie, driving home the point that you better have a damn good reason for sending American troops over there.

If Moore’s film has a unifying theme, it is that George W. Bush wasn’t qualified to make this decision. He should have never gotten anywhere near a decision of such grave importance. A dim, spoiled rich party-boy with a sketchy national guard record who rode his father’s coattails into politics like is was a dry cleaning business and won a suspect election that was ultimately decided on a technicality by a 5-4 Supreme Court decision: how does he do it?

I almost felt sorry for Bush during parts of the film, particularly when he learned about the planes hitting the World Trade Center. Bush sat in front of a room of schoolchildren in Florida, clearly understanding what was happening as Andrew Card whispered the news in his ear. The look on Bush’s face was pure anguish, yet trying to give nothing away. He looked like a guy who didn’t have any idea how to act or what to do. He froze up.

Who knows how anyone would have acted in that situation? But even so, he failed the ultimate test of leadership in a time of crisis by continuing to sit there and do nothing for seven minutes. Sure I felt bad for him. But he had plenty of time to think about Iraq, and he botched that one even worse.

Perhaps it’s unfair to lay the blame for the hundreds of dead American soldiers at the feet of Bush as Moore does in the film. Lots of Americans, including John Kerry and most of the rest of Congress, supported Bush’s decision to invade Iraq. Indeed, there were good reasons to go into Iraq the way we did. But right now I’m having a hard time remembering any of them.

(David Brown is a volunteer staff writer for 2 Walls Webzine.)