Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sun Tzu who wrote (141710)	7/28/2004 12:05:48 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Did I find any factual mistakes in the movie? Well, as I said, he didn't express facts, he expressed opinions. Take, as an example, something I actually know quite a bit about, the 2000 election. He is of the opinion that Bush stole the election. I believe that he's factually wrong on that, but I understand how he could have that opinion. Many do. On the other hand, I don't recall him saying that depleted uranium weapons cause cancer. If he did, that was factually not just wrong, but boneheadedly wrong. It's the type of opinion expressed by people who know little or nothing about radiation, cancer or epidemiology. It's a very common opinion, but then, many believe that aliens take people up into spaceships to experiment on them. They're wrong too, in my opinion, but I have no idea how to prove that (about the aliens). The way you prove that depleted uranium doesn't cause cancer is with scientific evidence, of a type called epidemiology, because it's not ethical to expose humans to depleted uranium for the sake of science. It really should be cleaned up after wars, too, it's a heavy metal, and can cause heavy metal type damage, worse than lead, it is toxic if ingested in large enough quantities, that's true. But epidemiology proves DU doesn't cause cancer, just as breast implants don't cause cancer. BTW, I expect that your "ethical deserters" were afraid for their own skins, afraid they, themselves would get cancer.

To: Sun Tzu who wrote (141710)	7/28/2004 2:01:59 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Respond to of 281500

A clever moviemaker can tell lies with facts (not that Moore doesn't resort to lies when he needs to, like the fabricated "Gore Wins Election" headline). Is it a lie to show a peaceful, happy Iraqi scene of kite-flying before the war, and constrast it with gruesome scenes of dead civilians when the war started? I'm sure boys flew kites under Saddam, and I'm sure that civilians died in the war. But it's hardly the whole story, is it? It's hardly even a representative sample of the whole story, is it? If most Iraqis had really supported Saddam, and if the US had carpet bombed Iraqi civlians during the war, then it would have fair - and this is exactly the impression that Moore aimed to achieve. It is a testament to his cleverness that he can convey such a false impression, yet look innocent and say "where is the lie"?

To: Sun Tzu who wrote (141710)	7/28/2004 4:23:18 PM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 281500

I find it interesting that we have two very different views of how Moore portrayed the soldiers. Moore portrayed several different views of our soldiers; all of them realistic and accurate assessments of how men might, and do, react under harsh circumstances. The one that she found offensive was the one where the soldier was in "Burn MFer, Burn" mode. She doesn't think that's a fair portrayal of the brave and noble young men we send to war. She's wrong, however, many young men fall into that pattern of thinking when they get too heavy a dose of fear. The fear turns into aggression and hate and they use their awesome power to make sure the MFers burn; even those who "might" be MFers or "might" support MFers, or just get in the way and scare them at the wrong time. No matter how unpleasant she finds that, it's reality. I saw plenty of guys with that attitude in Vietnam, and they did all the things Kerry said they did when he testified before the Senate committee in the 70s. Just cause you aren't there to hear the tree fall, doesn't mean it didn't hit the ground with a big noise. But then sometimes sticking a long neck into the sand will make life more serene.