The Silence of the Lambaster.
It’s been two days since the Iraqi elections. The blogsphere and the media are still a-buzz with discussion and analysis of this historic event. Most everyone (save the fringeiest of the fringe) seems to see the positive aspect of 8 million people voting in Iraq. Even those who normally oppose this war have been holding their noses and proclaiming at least the possibility of a silver lining to this cloud of war. Well, almost everyone.
In the past week before the election and in the two days following, Moore has posted at least 35 links on his website to negative stories about the election. In the days preceding the election, all of the stories wrongly predicted doom and gloom. The post election stories link to comparisons to the voter turnout in the Vietnam election. Not one good word of news from Moore at all, save the latest installment of “Mike’s Letter” which announced his happiness at receiving the People’s Choice Award a while ago. Other than that, not a single word from Moore, not one word. If he stays true to form, I guess we’ll have to wait a week or so for Moore to issue a letter to those Iraqi’s opposed to the election, encouraging them to not slit their wrists, followed by a letter declaring victory because voter turnout was lower this Iraqi election as compared to the last one.
But still,
I find it telling that the man who has lamented such great concern for the kite-flying, tea-sipping Iraqi people featured in Fahrenheit 9-11 can’t be bothered to string together a few words of admiration for those same people who braved the threat of death to cast their votes this past weekend.
A while back, Moore declared:
“The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not ‘insurgents’ or ‘terrorists’ or ‘The Enemy.’ They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow—and they will win.”
It seems that Moore only admires the Iraqi people when they validate his agenda of hating George Bush. Now that they have embraced this ideal of democracy, he seems to have lost respect for them by failing to acknowledge their achievement. I think he’s taken this whole “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” concept a little over the edge. Given the oppportunity to applaud the Iraqi people for their brave embrace of the concept of self determination, the silence from Moore is deafening. The Iraqi voters, they are the revolution, their numbers grew, and they won. Moore’s contempt for Bush can’t take that away.
