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Jewish World Review April 19, 2005 / 10 Nisan, 5765 Mr. Moore, put your best face forward By Kathryn Lopez
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Last November, as John Kerry conceded and President Bush declared his
second presidential victory — both graciously and in a spirit of unity
(to the extent that is possible after two years of contentious
campaigning) — Michael Moore did what a sore loser does: he displayed a
collage of dead soldiers on his Web site, their faces collectively
forming an image of President Bush.
Each election season typically includes its own share of ugliness, yet
such low blows sting all the more during wartime, particularly when U.S.
troops become a sparring point.
Moore's collage sadly represents what he does best: He peddles images
that make his political points, inconvenient realities be damned. He's
unconcerned with fair debates over why we're deployed where we are: The
mythology of his election season movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11" has been well
chronicled.
Thankfully, Byron York's new book "The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy" (Crown
Forum) (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.) has just put what should be the last nail in Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" coffin. In it, the National Review White House Correspondent explains that the movie didn't even do as well as Moore claimed it did:
"Every single state that Bush won in 2000, it was the number-one film in
it," was the grandstander's contention. Think again. Try: It did very
well in blue states and in Canada — in other words, the performance one
might have expected from an anti-war movie, the hopes of the Democratic
National Committee to the contrary.
But factual handicaps — both in the movie and about the movie — are
not what's infuriating about Moore and his "Slacker Uprising." It's his
disservice to the American serviceman — and juvenile disrespect for the
commander in chief who leads them. (His shrillness is all the more
frustrating because he does seem to be in part motivated by a respect
for the troops — raising money for them and their families on his Web
site, for instance.)
Perhaps I should be grateful to Moore. At least he is not peddling "Kill
Bush" T-shirts, as some of his fellow travelers are. He's not even
throwing pies, as some conservative pundits have recently gotten a taste
of.
Don't get me wrong, there should be plenty of room in an open society
for debate. Even supporters of the president, or of the war effort in
Iraq, specifically, will disagree here and there with him, as will
members of his administration. But we have to be vigilant not to do so
at the expense of our troops. Their efforts have not been in vain — as
many an Iraqi who voted this past January in the first real election of
their lives will tell you.
I was reminded of Moore's disgraceful collage as I watched the
heartbroken pride on the face of 11-year-old David Smith. He was at the
White House on April 4, with his mother and sister, receiving the Medal
of Honor from President Bush on behalf of his dad, Sergeant First Class
Paul Ray Smith. The ceremony was held two years to the date of Sgt.
Smith's death. He was killed in action at Baghdad International Airport
on April 4, 2003. The president credited him with saving the lives of
100 American soldiers that day.
Paul Ray Smith's story is also a reminder of all the other members of
our volunteer Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines whose names we all do not
know. Those, like Smith, who do not return home. And those who come back
broken — in one way or many others.
Country singer Wynona Judd recently talked about her work with the USO.
Of her visits to Washington-area Bethesda National Naval Medical Center
and the Walter Reed Army Medical Center where wounded troops go for care
and rehab — places where the sight of young men missing multiple limbs
is commonplace — Judd said, "I walk out of there prouder every single
time, prouder to be an American. You all have made me want to be a
better citizen."
That's what we are called to be and what the men and women of our
military inspire us to be. We can't all pick up arms and fight those who
want to do us harm or give physical aid to freedom lovers abroad, but we
can support our troops, and, at the very least, with our words and deeds
avoid dissing their service. Some give their lives; some give their
youth; some give up any sense of normalcy in their lives, forevermore.
And we owe them — even if you believe something different should be done.
In other words, it's a time to put our best front-page Web site forward,
not our worst.
And whatever our individual positions on going into Iraq in the first
place (or Afghanistan, for that matter), this is no time for
carelessness. Debate how long we should stay in, how many troops should
remain, how long rotations should be, etc. But, keep it real.
"The toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad will be recorded,
alongside the fall of the Berlin Wall, as one of the great moments in
the history of liberty," the U.S. commander-in-chief said during an
April speech at Fort Hood in Texas. Folks disagreed vociferously with
Ronald Reagan's Cold War policies that helped bring down the Soviet
Empire — even about the extent of the Evil Empire's threat — but
history is what it is. And our armed forces deserve the credit while
their wounds are still raw and while their children still can remember
the sound of their voices.
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