>Moreover, if it is true that the Saudis have so much invested in this
>country, then it makes no sense for wealthy Saudi entrepreneurs and
>governing figures to wish the US harm. Can you imagine the bath Saudi
>investments took here after 9/11? The Saudi royals and the Bin Ladens
>lounging about in places like Orlando, who were airlifted out lest they be
>massacred after the attacks, didn't know anything about the apocalyptic
>plots hatched in dusty Qandahar, and if they had they would have blown the
>whistle on them with the US so as to avoid losing everything they had.
where in the film does Moore suggest that the Saudi elite were involved in 9/11?
He thinks it odd that no one questioned the family. He says, paraphrased, would anyone have airlifted McVeigh's family out of the country? That is not saying that McVeigh's family was responsible for the OK bombing but, rather, that they may have known something that would assist the investigation.
I don't think it's unreasonable to assume the same about the bin laden family and the rest of the Saudi elite. We have some evidence that there were widespread rumors that there was something going down, do you really think it escaped the Saudis attention? And why should we expect the Saudis to blow the whistle. Am I wrong? I thought a staple of left analysis of the double game the Saudi elites play. And even if that's not true: I am not sure whey Saudis would think they carry our water! I'm pretty certain that like all nationalist elites, they imagine that they are equals and that they can play cat and mouse with us, too. It may not be objectively true, but it is pretty rare that people see how powerless they are in these situations. It's unlikely that a ruling elite will consciously face the fact that the u.s. is "their daddy."
Finally, the point is made that it just simply looked bad and they didn't seem to care that it looked bad. Given the way this administration has subsequently behaved, like duh?
Oh another finally. The Saudi elite were going to be massacred after 9/11. huh? This is absolutely absurd. They didn't need to be airlifted out of the u.s. to be protected from raging mobs.
This movie was a movie designed to expose the Busheviks' lies. It was directed at a u.s. audience to show them how they are lied to and how they are used and exploited. Yes, it would be nice if, in two hours, you could magically cover all the territory Mooore did and edcucate people are they are simultaneously oppressed and the oppressors. But again, was that what Moore was trying to do? Can ANYONE do that in the space of a film that last two hours. No, they cannot. There are also important strategic considerations here. How best to move toward that sort of critique. Is wagging your finger at u.s.ers a good approach? Does it work on you? Do you feel inclined to "get it" when someone incessantly scolds you for being racist, sexist, ablist, etc? My observation is that it does not work particularly well.
I absolutely agree and was the first person to say it: damn, he should have spent way more time on what happened in Iraq. But what would you have liked him to have eliminated in order to do so. I think if you're speaking to people like Lila, you need to tell Lila's story because it's their story. After that, it is our job to take the message of the movie and expand on it and work with it. Once they get "their story" they are going to be primed to get how it works all over the world.
That, my friends, is how it has worked in my experience. Local movements against state and capitalist oppression start out NIMBY. in the process of social struggle for their own self interest, people come to realize that it's not just in their back yard. it's in other struggling community's back yards. And it's not just in community's in the u.s., it's in community's all over the world. And then it hits them: we need a worldwide struggle against our common enemy.
So, I guess you'll never argue me out of this position. I've seen it happen. You start where people are and work from there.
Kelley
"We're in a fucking stagmire."
--Little Carmine, 'The Sopranos'