[R-G] Searing documentary on war complicity indicts not just U.S. politicos, but major media, too

[Anthony Fenton]

Download War Made Easy: http://www.onebigtorrent.org/details.php? 
id=2403&hit=1

Copyright 2007 The Gazette, a division of CanWest MediaWorks  
Publication Inc.
All Rights Reserved
The Gazette (Montreal)

August 26, 2007 Sunday
Final Edition

SECTION: ARTS & LIFE; Bill Brownstein on War Made Easy; Pg. A16

LENGTH: 1010 words

HEADLINE: Searing documentary on war complicity indicts not just U.S.  
politicos, but major media, too

BYLINE: BILL BROWNSTEIN, The Gazette

BODY:


It might not be the most Hollywood-slick, user-friendly title, but it  
couldn't be any more direct in conveying the movie's message. The  
title? War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to  
Death.

Although Sean Penn narrates this documentary, his is not the central  
voice. Rather, it's that of Norman Solomon, the outspoken U.S.  
journalist/author, on whose book of the same title the film is based.

And if Penn's voice sounds somewhat hushed narrating this searing  
doc, it's because he, like most others who will catch it, is probably  
blown away by the compelling case brought to the surface by Solomon  
and captured so effectively on screen by co-directors Loretta Alper  
and Jeremy Earp .

In short, Solomon suggests that U.S. foreign policy is dictated by a  
small circle of politicos, the president and his trusted advisers,  
who have their own agenda that often results in drawn-out wars that  
can't be won.

Even more damning, though, is Solomon's assertion that the major U.S.  
media serve as little more than mouthpieces for these politicos and  
that they are essentially complicit in these wars, too.

It seems that some media, according to Solomon, believe that being  
embedded with the U.S. military in combat means being in bed with the  
Pentagon.

Solomon draws fascinating yet frightening parallels between the  
Vietnam and Iraq wars, both of which have resulted in far too many  
casualties and emotional scars that could have been avoided. He  
deconstructs the canard that was the bogus WMDs - weapons of mass  
destruction - that served as the catalyst for the U.S. invasion of  
Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

He then indicts much of the media for perpetuating the myths  
surrounding the WMDs - until the facts emerged and it was no longer  
fashionable. He is utterly incredulous in recounting how CNN sought  
the Pentagon's approval for the military experts they conscripted to  
comment on air on Iraq. But he is not surprised that Phil Donahue,  
one of the few voices of media dissent on the Iraq war, was canned by  
MSNBC.

One of the most revealing clips in the doc dates back to 1964, when  
Oregon Senator Wayne Morse had the temerity to suggest that it was up  
to the American people, not the president, to formulate U.S. foreign  
policy. Morse, who at the time was one of only two senators to oppose  
military involvement in Vietnam, was almost laughed out of Washington  
for his views.

Well, they ain't laughing now. As for the American people, current  
stats show that almost the same number - 70 per cent - are as opposed  
to the war in Iraq as those who were against the Vietnam war.

"We're in a process now where short-circuiting the democratic process  
is really essential to perpetuating the war - much the same as it was  
during Vietnam," notes Solomon, in town for the international  
premiere of the doc at the Montreal World Film Festival.

"It's back to the future. The president has this long-term view, and  
feels the Congress and the public should just butt out."

Solomon, who visited Baghdad with Penn just prior to the U.S.  
invasion, is quick to point out that he's no pacifist. Some wars -  
namely the First World War and Second World War - have been necessary.

"There is a tendency to rally support when it looks like a war will  
be triumphant and short," he says. "But when it turns out to be non- 
triumphant and long, then there's time to disregard the information.  
Then the administration needs to work with its media allies to do  
damage-control, to shift the argument."

Needless to say, Solomon

hasn't been much in demand on the network talk-show front.

"Before the invasion of Iraq, I appeared often on CNN and Fox as well  
as the other networks. But then the networks suddenly weren't  
interested in dissent for a while, until it later appeared that Iraq  
wasn't such an unvarnished military triumph after all, " Solomon said.

With the limited release of the documentary in the U.S. and the tide  
turning against the Iraq war, however, it's a good bet that he will  
be making the rounds on the talk shows again.

"The point of this film can't be stopped. The intellectual and  
emotional power of the film will propel it." Regardless of what much  
of the media might think of him.

The doc, distributed worldwide by Montreal-based Mundovision, is  
slated for the Cinéma du Parc in the fall, and will probably find  
receptive audiences here, too. Solomon is aware that the majority of  
Quebecers, stung by the growing list of casualties, are much opposed  
to Canada's military involvement in Afghanistan.

"Bush has Mr. Howard in Australia and Mr. Harper in Canada to assist  
him in this mirage of the coalition of the willing, which is, in  
reality, the coalition of the misled."

Solomon is also abundantly aware that there is no easy way out of the  
quagmire that is Iraq or Afghanistan.

"We are up against the formula that was applied to the Vietnam war,  
that is now being re-applied by Bush: 'You can't cut and run.' But I  
think that Daniel Ellsberg put it best: 'Total and complete  
withdrawal from Iraq is a terrible idea - and every other idea is  
worse.' "

Solomon relates, too, to musician Michael Franti's view: "You can  
bomb the world to pieces, but you can't bomb it to peace."

War Made Easy screens at the Quartier Latin today at 6:10 p.m.,  
tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. and Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.

bbrownst at thegazette.canwest.com

For commentary, news, critics' picks, and to share your own film  
picks, go to montrealgazette.com/wff2007

- - -

World Film Festival Facts

The 31st Montreal World Film Festival continues until Sept. 3 at the  
Imperial Theatre, 1430 Bleury St.; Théâtre Maisonneuve of Place des  
Arts; nine screens in the Quartier Latin, 350 Émery St.; Cinéma  
Banque Scotia, 977 Ste. Catherine St. W.; and the NFB Cinema, 1564  
St. Denis St.

Special discount books of 10 or 30 coupons are offered at the  
festival's office in the Imperial, PdA and the Quartier Latin.  
Supplies are limited, and purchase forms are available at the  
festival's website, www.ffm-montreal.org.

Individual $10 tickets are available at any venue, but PdA and Banque  
Scotia only sell tickets for their theatres.

GRAPHIC:
Photo: MUNDOVISION; Author Norman Solomon. ;