Extraordinary, Serious, Worth Every Penny and Every Minute,
Based on interviews with leading authorities on peace, democracy, and the subversion of democracy, this is an extraordinary documentary. Here are some of the highlights:
1) Standard prior to 9/11 for intercepting a hijacked airplane was four minutes. Under Dick Cheney that morning, managing a nation-wide exercise, it extended to one hour and twenty minutes, and the only plane successfully knocked down was knocked down by citizens armed with cell phone, not military aircraft subverted by Dick Cheney.
2) Human rights for the US are a fraud. The US supports Saudi Arabia, Egypt, over 40 dictators, and only uses human rights as subterfuge for deceiving its own citizens.
3) US is hypocritical on democracies, and one speaker makes the telling point, if Bush was willing to steal the Florida election and subvert democracy in Florida and the USA, why should anyone believe him on wanting to put democracy into Iraq?
4) The Bush-Cheney Administration is the problem, but they became the problem because the US media, owned by corporations in league with the Bush Administration, decided not to do its duty of truth finding and truth telling.
5) America's proudest tradition is that of freedom of speech, or freedom to speak out. That is gone now among most of the population. Dissent has been repressed if not criminalized, and a false sense of emergency and patriotism used to stifle legitimate dissent.
6) Lost in the middle of the documentary is the thought that people can make a difference, and by simply standing up if not speaking out, they can empower and protect those who are true patriots willing to question authority.
7) The movie points out that 90% of the causalities in all US-driven wars are civilians, and this alone is cause to dissent from elective wars.
8) The movie featured disabled US veterans from Iraq testifying that those who protest the elective war justified on a fabric of lies, are the true patriots, the true representatives of the ideals of the Founding Fathers.
9) Over-all the documentary is a TREMENDOUS catalog of anti-war and pro-peace demonstrations that took place across America, but were never reported by the captive mainstream media.
10) Al Sharpton shines in one part of the film.
11) On screen are listed hundreds of US incursions and military actions against as many countries, most without any declaration of war or sanction from Congress.
12) Among the passing points toward the end of the film: United Nations may be dead for failing to prevent US invasion of Iraq; US elite is definitely flexing its muscles and may be in great fear of an international “controlling authority” on war crimes and predatory capitalism' 9-11 was a “god-send” that allowed the Bush-Cheney Administration to use 9-11 as a “license to kill;” Iraq is not the issue, the issue is the split between the unilateral militarism of the USA and its “new Europe” dictator friends, and the more worldly balanced “old Europe” trying to avoid conflict.
13) Overall the documentary concludes that the Bush II programs are quite harmful to the public interest, and that the US has been unique in fearing Saddam Hussein when no other country in the world did so (see my review of “The One Percent Doctrine.”
14) The books ends on two very thoughtful notes: that the common people do not want war because their best hope is to get back alive, while the elites promote war as a way of profiteering from war; and second, that we are teaching the world that they NEED weapons of mass destruction as a threat against a USA run amok.
15) The documentary made excellent use of the music and lyrics of AVE MARIA, to the point that I have ordered the best DVD available, and now consider AVE MARIA to be the anti-war and pro-peace musical rendition of the century.
This is a serious documentary, well worth buying and well worth watching. A solid effort.
