[Reader-list] Micheal Moore's Letter to Bush

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear all,

Shohini Ghosh asked me to pass this on to the Reader List. It is a letter 
by the documentary filmmaker Micheal Moore to George W Bush

Shuddha
________________________________________


Micheal Moore is the Documentary Filmmaker who made Roger and 
Me, The 
Big One and the more recent Bowling for Columbine.

A Letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush on the Eve of War

Monday, March 17th, 2003

George W. Bush 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington, DC

Dear Governor Bush:

So today is what you call "the moment of truth," the day that "France 
and
the rest of world have to show their cards on the table."

I'm glad to hear that this day has finally arrived. Because, I gotta 
tell
ya, having survived 440 days of your lying and conniving, I wasn't sure 
if
I could take much more. So I'm glad to hear that today is Truth Day, 
'cause
I got a few truths I would like to share with you:

1. There is virtually NO ONE in America (talk radio nutters and Fox News
aside) who is gung-ho to go to war. Trust me on this one. Walk out of 
the
White House and on to any street in America and try to find five people 
who
are PASSIONATE about wanting to kill Iraqis. YOU WON'T FIND THEM! 
Why? 
'Cause NO Iraqis have ever come here and killed any of us! No Iraqi has
even threatened to do that. You see, this is how we average Americans
think: If a certain so-and-so is not perceived as a threat to our lives,
then, believe it or not, we don't want to kill him! Funny how that 
works!

2. The majority of Americans -- the ones who never elected you -- are 
not
fooled by your weapons of mass distraction. We know what the real 
issues
are that affect our daily lives -- and none of them begin with I or end 
in
Q. Here's what threatens us: two and a half million jobs lost since you
took office, the stock market having become a cruel joke, no one 
knowing 
if
their retirement funds are going to be there, gas now costs two dollars 
a
gallon -- the list goes on and on.

Bombing Iraq will not make any of this go away. Only you need to go 
away
for things to improve.

3. As Bill Maher said last week, how bad do you have to suck to lose a
popularity contest with Saddam Hussein? The whole world is against 
you, 
Mr.
Bush. Count your fellow Americans among them.

4. The Pope has said this war is wrong, that it is a SIN. The Pope! But
even worse, the Dixie Chicks have now come out against you! How bad 
does 
it
have to get before you realize that you are an army of one on this war? 
Of
course, this is a war you personally won't have to fight. Just like when
you went AWOL while the poor were shipped to Vietnam in your place.

5. Of the 535 members of Congress, only ONE (Sen. Johnson of South 
Dakota)
has an enlisted son or daughter in the armed forces! If you really want 
to
stand up for America, please send your twin daughters over to Kuwait 
right
now and let them don their chemical warfare suits. And let's see every
member of Congress with a child of military age also sacrifice their 
kids
for this war effort. What's that you say? You don't THINK so? Well, hey,
guess what -- we don't think so either!

6. Finally, we love France. Yes, they have pulled some royal screw-ups.
Yes, some of them can be pretty damn annoying. But have you forgotten 
we
wouldn't even have this country known as America if it weren't for the
French? That it was their help in the Revolutionary War that won it for 
us?
That it was France who gave us our Statue of Liberty, a Frenchman who 
built
the Chevrolet, and a pair of French brothers who invented the movies? 
And
now they are doing what only a good friend can do -- tell you the truth
about yourself, straight, no b.s.

Quit pissing on the French and thank them for getting it right for once.
You know, you really should have travelled more (like once) before you 
took
over. Your ignorance of the world has not only made you look stupid, it 
has
painted you into a corner you can't get out of.

Well, cheer up -- there IS good news. If you do go through with this 
war,
more than likely it will be over soon because I'm guessing there aren't 
a
lot of Iraqis willing to lay down their lives to protect Saddam Hussein.
After you "win" the war, you will enjoy a huge bump in the popularity 
polls
as everyone loves a winner -- and who doesn't like to see a good
ass-whoopin' every now and then (especially when it 's some third world
ass!). And just like with Afghanistan, we'll forget about what happens 
to a
country after we bomb it 'cause that is just too complex!

So try your best to ride this victory all the way to next year's 
election.
Of course, that's still a long ways away, so we'll all get to have a 
good
hardy-har-har while we watch the economy sink even further down the
toilet!  But, hey, who knows -- maybe you'll find Osama a few days 
before
the election! See, start thinking like THAT! Keep hope alive! Kill 
Iraqis
-- they got our oil!!

Yours,

Michael Moore   









-- 
Shuddhabrata Sengupta
SARAI
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
29 Rajpur Road
Delhi 110054
Phone 23960040