From Democracy Now!’s show May 29th, 2007:
The previews of this documentary titled as the diary are truly stunning and have to be watched to be appreciated. They show over and over how the reasoning of supporting peace and democracy has been used to justify war and killing. More video and commentary below.
More from Amy Goodman’s May 29th show:
Protests against the Bush administration and the Iraq War continued across the country over the Memorial Day weekend. Today we spend the hour looking at how presidents from Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush sold wars to the American public. Media critic Norman Solomon and the Media Education Foundation have released a documentary titled "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death." The film is based on Solomon's book of the same name. The film features extended commentary by Solomon and is narrated by Sean Penn.
A full version of the hour long show is available to be viewed on Democracy Now's web site.
This movie was written about here and mentioned here in two diaries that got about zero attention on this site.
Here is the transcript from the first part of the movie:
NORMAN SOLOMON: So, first, the public has to be sold on the need to attack. Then, after the war's underway, withdrawal needs to be put forward as an unacceptable option.
PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON: Withdrawal of all American forces from Vietnam would be a disaster.
PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON: Let no one think for a moment that retreat from Vietnam would bring an end to conflict.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: We're not leaving, so long as I’m the President. That would be a huge mistake.
PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON: Our allies would lose confidence in America.
PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON: To yield to force in Vietnam would weaken that confidence.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Any sign that says we're going to leave before the job is done simply emboldens terrorists.
PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON: A retreat of the United States from Vietnam would be a communist victory, a victory of massive proportions and would lead to World War III.
PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON: If this little nation goes down the drain and can't maintain independence, ask yourself what's going to happen to all the other little nations.
PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON: It would not bring peace. It would bring more war.
NORMAN SOLOMON: And many propaganda lines become stock and trade of those who started the war in the first place.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: The party of FDR and the party of Harry Truman has become the party of "cut and run."
REP. J.D. HAYWORTH: The American people will not stand for surrender.
REP. JEAN SCHMIDT: Cowards cut and run.
REP. PATRICK McHENRY: They're advocating a policy called "cut and run."
KARL ROVE: That party's old pattern of cutting and running.
REP. CHARLIE NORWOOD: If we high-tailed it and cut and run –
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: We won’t cut and run.
Cut and run.
Cut and run.
We will not cut and run.
Cut and run.
ANDERSON COOPER: Cut and run. Cut and run. How do you respond?
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: We will stay the course.
We must stay the course.
We stay the course.
We will stay the course.
And we're not going to cut and run, if I’m in the Oval Office.
NORMAN SOLOMON: All a president has to do is start a war, and these arguments kick in that you can't stop it. So it's a real incentive for a president to lie, to deceive, to manipulate sufficiently to get the war started. And then they've got a long way to go without any sort of substantive challenge that says, hey, this war has to end.
NEWS ANCHOR: Then appealing for public support for his peace policy, Mr. Nixon said, "The enemy cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans," he said, "can do that."
PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON: The peacemakers are out there on the field. The soldier and the statesman need and welcome the sincere and the responsible assistance of concerned Americans. But they need reason much more than they need emotion. They must have a practical solution and not a concoction of wishful thinking and false hopes, however well-intentioned and well-meaning they may be. It must be a solution that does not call for surrender or for cutting and running now. Those fantasies hold the nightmare of World War III and a much larger war tomorrow.
Here is part 2 of the video:
Here is part 3 of the video:
Here is part 4 of the video:
Here is part 5 of the video:
You can subscribe to my You Tube videos here:
heathr234
The movie can be purchased at Democracy Now's web site and at WarMadeEasyTheMovie.org.
Please help to spread the word on this film as it does an excellent job of exposing the rhetoric that Presidents use to keep us in wars, and exposes the press’ role in selling the War in Iraq.