an antidote (bump)

Reposted from 27 September. Truth for Troops is once again raising funds from the public, after receiving corporate sponsorship for the first 5000 DVD copies of FahrenHYPE 9-11.

Two news stories threw me into a purple rage last week. I've already discussed Sen. Kerry's petty response to Iraqi PM Allawi's speech before the Joint Session, here and here. But earlier came this piece in the Christian Science Monitor: A strident minority: anti-Bush US troops in Iraq.

It isn't the politics these troops espouse that is at issue; it's the pastry-addled rat bastard and enemy collaborator who is undermining their morale with the most insidious work of utter mendacity since the heyday of Leni Riefenstahl.

Excerpts from the CSM piece follow.

Inside dusty, barricaded camps around Iraq, groups of American troops in between missions are gathering around screens to view an unlikely choice from the US box office: “Fahrenheit 9-11,” Michael Moore's controversial documentary attacking the commander-in-chief.

“Everyone's watching it,” says a Marine corporal at an outpost in Ramadi that is mortared by insurgents daily. “It's shaping a lot of people's image of Bush.” […]

With only three weeks until an Oct. 11 deadline set for hundreds of thousands of US troops abroad to mail in absentee ballots, this segment of the military vote is important - symbolically, as a reflection on Bush as a wartime commander, and politically, as absentee ballots could end up tipping the balance in closely contested states.

It is difficult to gauge the extent of disaffection with Bush, which emerged in interviews in June and July with ground forces in central, northern, and southern Iraq. No scientific polls exist on the political leanings of currently deployed troops, military experts and officials say. […]

“We shouldn't be here,” said one Marine infantryman bluntly. “There was no reason for invading this country in the first place. We just came here and [angered people] and killed a lot of innocent people,” said the marine, who has seen regular combat in Ramadi. “I don't enjoy killing women and children, it's not my thing.”

As with his comrades, the marine accepted some of the most controversial claims of “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which critics have called biased. “Bush didn't want to attack [Osama] Bin Laden because he was doing business with Bin Laden's family,” he said.

Another marine, Sgt. Christopher Wallace of Pataskala, Ohio, agreed that the film was making an impression on troops. “Marines nowadays want to know stuff. They want to be informed, because we'll be voting out here soon,” he said. ” 'Fahrenheit 9/11' opened our eyes to things we hadn't seen before.” But, he added after a pause, “We still have full faith and confidence in our commander-in-chief. And if John Kerry is elected, he will be our commander in chief.”

Fortunately, however, Moore may not have the last word. Here's Bryan Preston, from last Friday:

Due for release on DVD on October 5th is a film called FahrenHYPE 9-11. It's a documentary that refutes F*** 9-11. I've watched the online trailer and it looks solid. The DVD is just $14.99. If we could flex the might of the blogosphere, we could buy enough of these DVDs to get one in the hands of every platoon leader in Iraq. We don't need enough for each troop—just enough so that passing them around is easy and a majority of the troops can see it. If we do this we'll be helping the troops sort out truth from Moore's lies, and help buck up their morale. I think it's important that we give our troops some basis for refuting Moore and keeping his lies as far from infecting their warfighting ability as possible. Maybe FahrenHYPE 9-11 will help.

Citizen Smash/Indepundit has more, including word that MooreWatch has scored 5000 copies of the DVD rebuttal.

Do go watch the trailer. It's a slick piece of work, featuring politicos and pundits from former NYC mayor Ed Koch to Democratic Sen. Zell Miller to National Review's David Frum to (yes) Ann Coulter. Hopefully the completed product will live up to the promise.

UPDATE. Just checked JunkYardBlog for updates. Preston has registered truthfortroops.org—nothing much there yet, but the site will soon be organizing efforts to get FahrenHYPE distributed as widely as possible.

UPDATE 2. There is another rebuttal film set to debut in theatres tomorrow: Celsius 41.11. This one is clearly more partisan than FahrenHYPE 911 (not that that's necessarily a bad thing), and will likely have a more limited impact than the DVD release of the latter. Still, the trailers are worth checking out, as the film ought be if it comes to your area—bearing in mind, of course, that the number of art houses that will show anything critical of the living icon Moore is vanishingly small. (Link via The Western Standard.)