YA-HOLE! Movies

I saw Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 when it came out. It's no good as a reasoned anti-war argument, but it is a fair representation of how the anti-war public feels about the whole mess. (Later, I watched Moore's Bowling for Columbine and thought it was even less informative and more commentary-ish.)

More recently I saw Fighting for Life, about the military medical system. It seems they do what they do very well indeed, but it's an absolute g.d. travesty that they have to be doing it at all.

So, anyway, while making plans for the weekend, I first heard about Body of War, a documentary about a wounded & paralyzed Iraq War 2 veteran that also covers the Congressional role in starting said war.

The movie was produced by Phil Donahue (yes, that Phil Donahue), whose political sympathies are somewhat left of center. Here is part of Mr. Donahue's statement from the Body of War website:

Our film also revisits one of the most tragic errors of judgment ever made by a United States Congress. After engaging in a superficial dialogue, robotic Senators and House members are seen voting to approve the Iraq War Resolution in October, 2002. Members take the floor, one by one, reading talking points of the White House Iraq Group, the assembly of advertising agency warriors whose job was to sell the war. It was WHIG who gave the nation a litany of untruths:

Saddam has "unmanned aerial vehicles" to deliver toxins "over wide territories" and scary doomsday scenarios, "The smoking gun could be a mushroom cloud."

As the War Resolution is debated, our cameras watch as Tomas deals with the very personal consequences of this historic and unprecedented vote for pre-emptive war. ...

...


To all the main-streamers in the press who supported the invasion of Iraq, to the pundits who continue to talk tough while other people's kids die, to all the merry warriors who recruited Jesus to assist them in this massive foreign policy blunder -

I have a soldier for you.

Now, if you happen to remember, or can be bothered to look it up, you will know that the Republican Party was the majority party in both houses of Congress between 1994 and 2006, during which period the Second Iraq War was begun and FUBAR'd. Yes, there were Democrats in both houses of Congress, but they were in the minority in both houses, and they were cowed (pathetically so, to be sure) by Republican threats of procedural shenanigans (e.g., the so-called "Nuclear Option" to strip senators of their constitutional right to filibuster during judicial confirmation hearings). So the Democrats are not blameless in regard to the Second Iraq War, but neither are they primarily responsible.

OK? OK.

Now, take a look at the Yahoo! Movies summary for Body of War:

Follows one wounded soldier’s attempt to readjust to life in the U.S. as a handicapped veteran, while painting an incriminating portrait of Democratic politicians and the war in Iraq. [emphasis added]

Well, at least it says "Democratic politicians" instead of "Democrat politicians," as our fearless feckless Republican leaders are wont to do. I guess you take what you can get.