Uncovered

Surf, don’t pause, over to the Truth Uncovered site and order a copy of the DVD: “Truth Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War” and then watch it with everyone you can possibly invite. I’ve had mine for several months now (it was a bonus gift for a donation I made to Moveon.Org), but until last night I hadn’t found the time to watch it. For just a little bit more than the cost of a movie ticket ($9.95), you’ll receive a powerfully unsettling documentary that systematically smashes to pieces the Bush administration’s rationales for the Iraq war.

But wait, you're saying, isn't that what Fahrenheit 911 does? I suppose, but Moore's movie, as entertaining and moving as it is, doesn't have the same sense of irrefutability about it. (And yes, I know, nothing is irrefutable in film...) This film -- which is scheduled to be released into theaters later this summer -- consists almost entirely of interviews with a variety of very credible witnesses from inside the Pentagon, the CIA, and so on, interspersed with quotes from Bush administration members (including Bush himself) taken from television news. The resulting documentary is far more frightening to me than Moore's, given how blatently clear Bush's chicanery becomes, and thus how coldly (and brilliantly?) manipulative his administration is revealed to be.

Moore's film asserts that the whole war is Bush's attempt to protect oil profits and oil barons, and that may well be true, although I suspect that in the minds of the neo-cons their motivations were at least in part more genuinely patriotic. But this film makes clear how dangerous a web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. And the web that Bush et. al. has woven is exquisitely dangerous! (A thought that was reinforced for me this morning as I read the front page news about the newly issued terror alert.)

I think I've probably read most of the evidence this film presents in various news accounts scattered across various foreign papers (particularly the UK Independent), but something about the neatly assembled interviews here -- the soft spoken, utterly rational words of older white men -- chills me more thoroughly and convicts me more completely, than simply reading this information ever did.

I woke up this morning more excited about the Kerry/Edwards candidacy than I've ever been. As much as I've complained about missing the Dean touch, and as much as I've bemoaned the lack of ability to mobilize the grassroots, that very lack makes clear that a Kerry administration will never attempt -- and should it attempt, will never be able to -- promulgate this kind of insidious and deliberate deception.

Ok, that's the negative reason. Here's the positive one: more than anyone in recent memory, Kerry is a candidate who takes seriously our standing as a member of a global community (rather than seeing the US as the chief power standing over the rest of the global masses). His ability to speak several languages well should be something we're proud of. His ability to reason in nuanced ways, to critically engage issues from multiple sides, to empathize with the "other," should excite us and grant him respect (rather than fueling the "flip flopping" image).

It's time that we all sat up and recognized that this is no trivial electoral game we're playing this year. A film like "Uncovered" brings that message home on a gut level, but does so with nuance and clarity. Get yourself a copy and share it widely!