Soldier Says Moore Film Hurting Military Morale
By Jeff Gannon
Talon News
July 27, 2004
(Talon News) -- An American soldier says that Michael Moore's agitprop film "Fahrenheit 9/11" is making the rounds among soldiers at U.S. military bases overseas and is "shocking and crushing soldiers" and making them feel "ashamed" of their service in Iraq. Army Spc. Joe Roche, serving with the 1st Armored Division wrote in a recent e-mail that the impact on morale is "devastating."
Roche says that the film affects soldiers in different ways, but often with the same results. He describes how young and impressionable soldiers recruited out of high school are unfamiliar with the college-type political debate environment and the full range of issues involved. He says they are particularly vulnerable to being hurt by a "vicious" film like Moore's.
The Army specialist points out that others who joined for reasons of money and other benefits have little knowledge of the countries and never gave full thought to the issues. He says that seeing this film has jolted them grievously because they never even knew where some of these countries were located.
Still others are suffering from being away from family and loved ones. Roche noted that these soldiers are burned out from 15 months of duty and susceptible to emotional manipulation.
But Roche says he is one of the soldiers who "want to explode in anger and rage at this abuse of the First Amendment and the way Moore has twisted reality so harshly."
"Moore ... is hurting us worse than the enemy has," Roche says.
Roche writes about Specialist Janecek who was feeling depressed because a close family member is nearing the end of her life, and saw the film.
The soldier told Roche, "I feel ... ashamed, like this was all a lie."
Roche says that many of the comments are of absolute shock at the close connections Moore makes between the Bush family and the Bin Laden family in Saudi Arabia. A common reaction to Moore's allegations is of confusion and doubt about the commander-in-chief's credibility.
He adds that anger and shame are ruining what should be a proud and happy return from 15 months of duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom -- all due to the lies and deceptions of the filmmaker.
Roche writes about Lt. Bischoff, who is angry about Moore's lies and distortions but believes "the damage is done." He says that this is the type of thing expected from angry leftists like Moore, but he wasn't prepared for the full impact this film is now having and how it has been embraced and supported by so many Hollywood elites.
Specialist Roche wonders how damaging and shocking a Moore project would have been in the 1940s making such a video of Franklin Roosevelt. He says that all the corruption and decadence in that administration would have fed such a project well. He also thinks about how damaging and shocking would such a Moore project have been to Lincoln, who wavered and shifted often in finding the right mediums and balances in pursuing the great causes of the Civil War.
Roche is clearly anguished that Moore is "hurting us, hurting America, and today I can tell you he is hurting your soldiers."
Democrats continue to embrace Moore and his film, allowing the filmmaker to have unrestricted access to the floor of their convention in Boston. The broadcast media can't seem to get enough of Moore's unshaven face, appearing frequently on nearly every network.
Leftist groups like MoveOn.org are promoting the anti-Bush film. The National Education Association showed it to its membership at a recent convention. The Washington, DC premiere of "Fahrenheit 9/11" attracted a crowd of 800 high-ranking Democrats and media figures.
One of the film's central assertions is that President Bush allowed a planeload of bin Laden relatives, unscreened by the FBI, to leave the United States while the airspace was still closed after September 11, 2001. Former counterterrorism chief and Bush critic Richard Clarke refuted all of those claims, saying that he alone authorized the flight that took place when the airspace had reopened and only after the FBI cleared all of the passengers. |
