Yesterday Jean and I went to see Michael Moore's "Farenheit 9/11". The film is well done. It has all the objectivity of a Rush Lembaugh broadcast but raises important points and issues. I gave myself a day to digest the film before posting my reactions.
First, a little bit of background. My politics tend more to the fiscally conservative but I have always been extremely reticent about putting American troops into combat in foreign countries. I was opposed to the war in Vietnam, though I served in the navy from '68 through '72. I was an avid fan of Ronald Reagan though I did not support US operations in El Salvador, Panama or Grenada.
During the ramp up to invading Iraq, I did not feel that the US had sufficient legal or moral justification to invade. Because Colin Powell said so, I thought Iraq might be striving for WMDs but I felt that without UN sanction we were trashing our international standing and relationships and forfeiting the moral high-ground. I also felt that the invasion of a heavily armed nation of 28 million people, which was the size of Texas and had no history of democracy, was probably like handcuffing one's self to jackhammer and a hornet's nest: they were going to stir up something truly unpleasant that they couldn't get out of.
Seeing Farenheit 9/11 has come at the end of a month of news including
1. humiliation, torture and even death of prisoners in the custody of Americans.
2. the release of memos repudiating our obligations under the Geneva convention, debating what level of prisoner abuse was permissible and the Secretary of Defense authorizing the humiliation and abuse of prisoners.
3. Prisoners who were determined by the administration to have no legal rights were being kept in off-shore camps and the administration argued before the supreme court that it was none of the court's business.
4. Insurrection and terrorism in Iraq was growing and even evidencing coordination among rival groups.
The combination of this news and watching this film has brought to the fore a few of my beliefs.
1. The best way to support our troops is to not put them in dangerous places where they don't belong.
2. Congress should be required to make a formal declaration of war with a roll-call vote before a president can exercise his "war powers" or invade and occupy another country.
3. It is extremely important that we choose as president a man who is large enough for the job. In the past, we have elected presidents who were carried to office not by leadership but by political organizations built by others and the financial support of people hoping to plunder the benefits of administering the nation. This has never been wise but in the past we were not the world's only superpower and could only cause so big a mess. The stakes have truly grown too large.