Mamamontezz's Mental Rumpus Room

An Open Letter

To the members of the Armed Services of the United States currently serving overseas in and around Iraq:

I have read the letter from Spc. Joe Roche regarding the impact of Michael Moore's film on the morale of young men and women who have served or are currently serving in Iraq.

The motives of any person who would download this film, burn it to a disk, and mail it to a young, exhausted, and vulnerable man or woman far from home doing what has to be the world's most difficult and thankless job have got to be questioned by sane and rational people. Any person who would do this is nothing less than thoughtless and cruel. I liken this behavior to telling "dead baby jokes" to a couple who has recently lost an infant, or amputee jokes to someone who is still learning to use his newly fitted prosthetics.

Michael Moore has an agenda, a very specific agenda, which he promotes with this film: The overthrow of a sitting president for the purpose of weakening this country and her military. He is Jane Fonda in a fat suit. He very obviously cherry-picked those he interviewed and then edited what was said in such a way to make their words as damning to their fellow fighting men and women as possible, and to undermine all sense of duty, honor, and patriotism in each of you, as well as in as many of us who remain at home as possible.

Spc. Roche is right that the youngest of you is the most vulnerable to his deceits, and because of this, you have been targeted for his venom. By undermining your confidence in yourselves, in your NCOs, in your officers, and ultimately in your Commander-in-Chief, he forwards his agenda and comes ever so much closer to accomplishing that which he prizes and seeks so openly. By turning your pride and spirit into despair and anger, he destroys you and all who depend on you. He knows and depends on the fact that when you begin to question yourself, you become a danger to yourself and to the man or woman who stands beside you, and you become a liability to your comrades, to your unit, and to your mission.

"Farenheit: 911" is a web of half-truths and outright deceits spun together for no other purpose than to become a rallying point for the anarchists, pacifists, and appeasers in this country and abroad. It gives them purpose and puts the fire in their bellies, instigating them to do such contemptible things as phoning the wives and mothers of servicemen, impersonating the Red Cross to give false death notifications. It gives them the nerve to confront returning military personnel at airports and on the streets for the purpose of abusing them much in the same manner as a great many veterans were abused during and after the Viet Nam war.

You may look at this film and feel that this nation views you as so much "cannon fodder" for a war about oil. Nothing could be further from the truth. My family and I are proud supporters of each and every one of you, and of your efforts to make our home a safer place. We are not the exception, but the rule. Our support is quiet. It takes the form of a box of snacks, a letter to a stranger, the anonymous picking up of the check when we see a man in uniform eating alone at a restaurant. It is the envelope with a 4th grade child's hand drawn card saying "I Love You" to a person she's never met.

We don't have the media voice given to those like Michael Moore or his followers, but we are not silent. We write on weblogs such as this one here, and those you find listed on this site. We are appreciative, we are informed, we are supportive of you and of your mission, and we are Legion.

I can only hope that when you see one of those disks being passed about on an installation, you get that disk, find the person who received it and didn't have the good sense to either send it back or destroy it, and bring that person up to speed on what they are doing to the very men and women they are supposed to be supporting. They have become by their actions a cog in a machine that has no purpose other than the destruction of all you have accomplished, and the discrediting of you and your mission and your entire chain of command.

There is little we can do to take away the pain of what this man and his propoganda have caused you, except to tell you that his movie and his agenda in no way represent the prevailing sentiment of the men and women who remain here at home. We do what is right, we support you and your efforts, and we welcome the day when you can return. We do what we can to counteract the damage he has done over here, and hope that you can do the same where you are, so many thousands of miles away.

A Call to Action: It is up to each of us to counter what this man has done, and to heal those who's hearts and minds bear his bitter wounds. Do what's right. Send your support. However small or insignificant you may think it is, there is no such thing. Tell someone you support them and the job they're doing in your name, in our names.

Posted by Mamamontezz at August 1, 2004 01:12 PM