Re: <nettime> review of F9/11

["tobias c. van Veen" <tobias@techno.ca>]

Nice points .. thought I would fill in + offer an opinion ..

Q:

> Why do not more US military personel, surely knowing something of the horrors
> which await them in Iraq, not simply up and leave for Canada?

Canada has signed a border agreement with the US that clamps down on
draft-dodging.

"In December 2001, Canada and the U.S. signed a "smart border declaration,"
which could be used to keep would-be draft dodgers in. Signed by Canada's
minister of foreign affairs, John Manley, and U.S. Homeland Security
director, Tom Ridge, the declaration involves a 30-point plan which
implements, among other things, a "pre-clearance agreement" of people
entering and departing each country. Reforms aimed at making the draft more
equitable along gender and class lines also eliminates higher education as a
shelter. Underclassmen would only be able to postpone service until the end
of their current semester. Seniors would have until the end of the academic
year."

http://www.canadianembassy.org/border/index-en.asp
http://www.canadianembassy.org/border/declaration-en.asp
http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/can-am/menu-en.asp?act=v&mid=1&cat=10&did=1669
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/12/12/rec.canada.border/
http://www.draftresistance.org/


Perhaps the other reason is that people want to stay. The Draft isn't
instated yet. It's not like Vietnam (although two current Bills could have
it in place for 2005).

 
> So the liberal view that 'the troops are people like us, who like us were
> misled' is the least convincing argument in the film, and it forms a major
> structural weakness.

op-ed:

Moore is a tactician. Promoting an anti-military message in the US would
backfire. One needs the military vote; if you condemn the military
apparatus, it only strengthens those who cherish them-- the Republicans.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is a tactical film for the US public and cannot be analysed
with accuracy as to its effect using strategies of truth or accountability.
We all know militarization and nationalism is bad. But pointing out such
things in the US immediately pigeonholes such a discourse to a lunatic
whisper. 

Counter to popular opinion, I think the US left has shown amazing ingenuity
in the past year or so. It is strong, organised, and working on a level it
hasn't operated at for some time. Perhaps a little late, but a little more
rested and mature as well. The '90s generation is becoming politically
active, and its model is the mole and the infiltrator, the media manipulator
and the archival producer, not the ideologue, the truth harbringer or the
prophet. 

tV




tobias c. van Veen -----------++++
http://www.quadrantcrossing.org --
http://www.thisistheonlyart.com --
McGill Communication + Philosophy
--- New School Philosophy --------
ICQ: 18766209 | AIM: thesaibot +++ 

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