Print |
E-mail to a friend
OPINIONS
Heath Harrison: Bill Kristol misinforms; Donahue makes statement with directorial debut
On April 16, the University of Charleston hosted conservative pundit Bill Kristol for a speaking engagement.
Kristol, whose visit was sponsored by Dow Chemical, was one of the key architects of the Bush administration's foreign policy and a co-founder of The Project for a New American Century, a neoconservative think tank that openly advocated for an invasion of Iraq years before Sept. 11.
Others associated with the organization include Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz.
PNAC signatories wrote in 2000 that the process of transforming U.S. foreign policy to their liking was "likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event -- like a new Pearl Harbor."
When Sept. 11 occurred, Kristol and his allies saw opportunity.
He claimed Hussein was "past the finish line" in developing nuclear weapons and asserted, "He's got weapons of mass destruction."
In addition to spreading misinformation, Kristol is notable for making inaccurate predictions that would put Miss Cleo to shame, such as predicting American forces would be "welcomed in Baghdad as liberators."
"Indeed, reconstructing Iraq may prove to be a less difficult task than the challenge of building a viable state in Afghanistan," Kristol wrote in 2002.
On Sept. 18, 2002, he looked into his "Kristol" ball and said, "A war with Iraq could have terrifically good effects throughout the Middle East."
On ethnic tensions in Iraq, he smugly told NPR's "Fresh Air" in an April 4, 2003, interview, "There's been a certain amount of pop sociology in America ... that the Shia can't get along with the Sunni and the Shia in Iraq just want to establish some kind of Islamic fundamentalist regime. There's almost no evidence of that at all. Iraq's always been very secular."
Is it too much to ask that UC also book someone who actually got it right on Iraq?
- n n
Former talk show host Phil Donahue recently made his directorial debut with the documentary "Body of War," which tells the story of Tomas Young, an Iraq War veteran paralyzed by a bullet to the spine after serving in the conflict for less than a week.
The film, co-directed with Ellen Spiro, follows Young's saga as he comes to terms with his disability and emerges as a leading antiwar voice.
"Tomas did not want a 'poor lad, oh, lad, how sad movie,'" Donahue told PBS' Bill Moyers. "He wanted a political movie. He wanted to make a statement. And, obviously, I did, too."
Donahue examines the lack of debate in the country prior to the conflict, a subject he's quite familiar with. He was fired from MSNBC's highest-rated show for his outspoken criticism of the nation's rush to war.
An internal memo from MSBC executives warned that the show would become, "a home for the liberal antiwar agenda at the same time that our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity."
In the film, Young meets with West Virginia Sen. Robert C. Byrd and helps him read the names of the 23 members of the senate who voted against the war ("the immortal 23," as Byrd calls them). Byrd's passionate speeches against the conflict play a major part in the film.
"What you see in our film is taking place behind the closed doors of thousands of homes in this country. Homes occupied by people who've come home -- signed up, proud Americans all, of varying political persuasion -- who went and answered the president's call," Donahue told Moyers. "Their injuries alter their lives, but they also alter the lives of the entire family, as you see in our film."
"Body of War" opened in theaters nationwide this month.
Heath Harrison is a copy editor for The Herald-Dispatch. He is a former student activist and campaign worker. This column was adapted from his "I Have Issues (A Political Blog)" blog at www.herald- dispatch.com.
