A collection of emails from the front line
Sometimes it is difficult to understand Michael Moore's motivations. I used to think that he was a wonderful champion of the left, however as you begin to dig deeper you quickly discover that he is not necessarily a champion of the left, but rather a champion of himself. He has his own motives and own agenda, and in a way, seems to be using the poor and disadvantaged of America to fuel his own publicity. His movies and his books are good, challenging, and confronting, however in many cases they seem to fuel his own promotion than to really do anything constructive.
This book is a collection of emails that were received from soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan and helps us understand these wars from their point of view. It is a first hand look at what it is to be a modern soldier in a modern war. Okay, Moore is against deployment in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and in a way I agree with him. While these wars have been promoted as an humanitarian mission, they have not turned out to be the case. The United States occupied both countries, though in the initial invasion there was actually little to no resistance. The problems arose immediately after the invasions, notably in Iraq when the collapse of Sadam's government brought about widespread looting.
It has been a while since I read this book, and I am a little dubious about the authenticity of some of these emails, however I am doubtful that they are purely a product of Moore's imagination. I suspect that they are real emails from real soldiers on the ground. The contents of many of them paint a picture of members of a occupying force being used by the commanders in Washington to secure their own goals. The real idea of Iraq was to create a Western paradise in the Middle East with access to oil. Not only that but the corporations were supposed to come in and set themselves up. In a way the Iraqis would go to sleep one night under Sadam and wake up in modern, corporate, Bagdad. However that never happened: the insurgency got in the way.
It is difficult to know the extent of what it is like to be in the US army. It is suggested that the pay is low and the benefits are non-existent. The contracts that went to the corporations (this was truly a mercenary war as while the army did a bulk of the work, many of the auxiliary duties went to private corporations, and many of the corporations syphoned huge amounts of money from the government) in many cases were no bid contract which were given to companies in which the government had interests (Halliburton). These companies would then abuse those contracts to no end. Private security contractors where then hired to protect those corporate interests.
However, in some of the anti-Moore documentaries that float around we suddenly discover that many of the soldiers that he had interviewed turned out to have different opinions of the war and the government than what Moore portrayed. Moore is trying to make a point, but unfortunately he is sinking to the level of those he is attacking by using their own methods and tactics. Tactics such as clever editing and control of information. However, the difference is that in the United States the corporations control the airwaves, and people like Moore and others tend to be denied a public speaking space. In the end it is not necessarily true, Moore still packed auditoriums, as does Chomsky and Zinn. While there are many criticisms of the Bush regime, the US government has yet to go down to road of violently suppressing and silencing the critics.
