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September 12, 2005

Michael Moore's Intellectual Dishonesty

A friend of mine forwarded to me this letter from Michael Moore. A rant that affixes all the blame for the Katrina disaster upon George W. Bush, the letter is staggering in its juvenile tone and steeped to its marrow in intellectual dishonesty.

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

So Michael Moore is presuming to speak for all National Guard soldiers? According to the Army National Guard website, the Guard's federal mission is (all emphases are mine):

During peacetime each state National Guard answers to the leadership in the 50 states, three territories and the District of Columbia. During national emergencies, however, the President reserves the right to mobilize the National Guard, putting them in federal duty status. While federalized, the units answer to the Combatant Commander of the theatre in which they are operating and, ultimately, to the President.

Even when not federalized, the Army National Guard has a federal obligation (or mission.) That mission is to maintain properly trained and equipped units, available for prompt mobilization for war, national emergency, or as otherwise needed.

The Army National Guard is a partner with the Active Army and the Army Reserves in fulfilling the country's military needs.

Has Moore done polling of Guard personnel to find out why they enlisted? I doubt that many joined with the idea of handling civil insurrections or searching through flooded houses.

[...]And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

Gee Michael...even a sixth grader ought to know that the President cannot introduce or vote on legislation, so GWB has not "specifically reduced" anything. Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu does know the rules of the game, though. A Washington Post story reveals that Louisiana receives more money than any other state for Corps projects:

For example, after a $194 million deepening project for the Port of Iberia flunked a Corps cost-benefit analysis, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) tucked language into an emergency Iraq spending bill ordering the agency to redo its calculations. The Corps also spends tens of millions of dollars a year dredging little-used waterways such as the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, the Atchafalaya River and the Red River -- now known as the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway, in honor of the project's congressional godfather -- for barge traffic that is less than forecast.

In addition, Michael, you might want to note that the floodwall that failed was in a section that was considered "completed"--there was no work underway there nor plans for any future work. More intellectual dishonesty.

And what exactly do you have against democracy in Iraq, anyway? I guess the little boys want Saddam back, so that they can resume their kite flying.

I'm not at all happy with GWB's handling of this situation; his inability to recognize this as a leadership moment will come back to haunt conservatives, I'm sure. And even from a non-partisan viewpoint there needs to be some very pointed, but constructive criticism of Bush's handling of the disaster and the whole structure of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security.

Moore's juvenile sarcasm is anything but constructive; but as with all of those on the Left, that wasn't his goal in the first place.

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Comments

Posted by: AJStrata at September 16, 2005 07:56 AM

Posted by: Francis at September 16, 2005 10:28 AM

Posted by: Jeff at September 16, 2005 11:59 AM

Posted by: AJStrata at September 16, 2005 10:52 PM

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