Insurgents using Michael Moore film for propaganda in Iraq

[Regis Philbin]

The sad thing is, Moore is probably proud the insurgents are using his film... :noway:

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-08-18T122316Z_01_BUL830429_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-MILITANTS-DOCUMENTARY.xml&src=rss&rpc=22


Iraqi group uses Michael Moore film to mock Bush

Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:23am ET [164]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi militant group has produced an elaborate video of what it said were attacks on U.S. troops, in the latest example of the increasingly sophisticated propaganda war being waged by Iraqi insurgents.

"The Code of Silence" was posted on the Internet by the Rashedeen Army, thought to be a relatively small Sunni group which has produced videos in the past of attacks it claims to have carried out.

At almost an hour in length, it is the longest and most professionally made of recent postings by mainly Sunni militant and insurgent groups fighting the U.S.-backed government.

The U.S. military said earlier this week that recent intelligence indicated al Qaeda in Iraq was refining its strategy by producing propaganda and adding a political base to its violent campaign of suicide bombings.

Lifting scenes from Michael Moore's anti-war film "Fahrenheit 9/11", Rashedeen's narrator taunts President Bush in softly spoken English over graphic images of Humvees being blown up by roadside bombs, and purportedly dead U.S. troops.

It was not possible to verify when the documentary was made or the authenticity of any of the images portrayed by Rashedeen, whose name means Army of the Rightly Guided.

At one point, the documentary cuts to a scene from Moore's 2004 award-winning film where he lobbies on the steps of the U.S. Congress in Washington.

"After all, there are honest and influential guys in America and if Mr Moore can talk to you like that, so can I," the Rashedeen narrator says.

[pinky]

I realize that you won't pay any attention to this, Richie, but I'm going to say it anyway:

George Walker Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney LIED about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and used those LIES as propaganda to justify the invasion of Iraq.

For the Iraqis to use some truth taken from a widely-recognized movie against the invaders of their country as propaganda seems like a small thing in return. Their use of American military vehicles in their film is abhorrent; their use of completely legal domestic criticism of this administration is smart.

[Richard Tafoya]

My guess is that actual Bush speech footage appears in their propaganda film. Probably much more than the filmwork of Michael Moore.

[pinky]

That would pretty much be all they needed.

[Richard Tafoya]

Bush is their poster boy. The intellectual weakness of the current administration is our most glaring Achilles' Heel to the majority of the world. And sadly, we're proving our shortcomings every month that the civilian death toll in Iraq rises because our bone-headed strategy has push that country into a civil war.

The insurgency in Iraq can draw a timeline from the days where we stopped doing the right thing in Afghnistan to playing Bush's disastrous oil-grab games in Iraq to today, and can easily match up Bush's bad choices to their spikes in recruitment. They may as well give George W. Bush an award for being their equivalent of a "Ranger" recruiter. Without him, they'd still have the world community on their tail. With him, the world has splintered into those who tolerate him and those who laugh at him.

To that end, Joe Scarborough set it quite well (cross-posted):

Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-scarborough/is-bush-an-idiot_b_27408.html

Is Bush an Idiot?

For the past six years George W. Bush has been the target of ridicule from liberal circles. But now, instead of laughing at Democrats’ ill-directed arrogance, Republicans are quietly joining the left in questioning the President’s intellectual prowess.

The biggest knock on Bush’s brain is his lack of intellectual curiosity. Former administration officials still close to the White House will tell you Mr. Bush detests dissent, embraces a narrow world view and is intellectually incurious.

Worse for this White House is the fact that George W. Bush has daily smackdowns with the English language and the English language usually wins.

...

So does it matter in the end whether our president is articulate and intelligent?

You bet your life, it does. I’m not saying we need to elect a dork like Michael Dukakis, who famously spent vacations at the beach reading books on Swedish land use or was so overwhelmed with the details of the old SALT treaties that he would sulk off to bed depressed.

But when America is fighting a global war on terror where the battle is for hearts and minds instead of beachheads and landing strips, we need a leader who can explain to friend and foe alike why America is in Iraq, why we keep sending arms to Israel and why liberal democracy really is preferable to Islamic fascism.

Right now, George W. Bush is not that leader.