Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
Michael Moore: Self - Narrator
Photos
Quotes
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Narrator : George Orwell once wrote that, "It's not a matter of whether the war is not real, or if it is, Victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia but to keep the very structure of society intact."
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Michael Moore : If you get called up, will you go back to Iraq?
Marine Who Served in Iraq : No.
Michael Moore : You're not?
Marine Who Served in Iraq : No.
Michael Moore : What repercussions do you face if you don't?
Marine Who Served in Iraq : It's possible jail time. That's one possible thing.
Michael Moore : Are you willing to risk that?
Marine Who Served in Iraq : Yes. Yes, I - I will not let my person... I will not let anyone send me back over there to kill other poor people. Especially when they pose no threat to me and my country.
[breif pause]
Marine Who Served in Iraq : I won't do it.
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Narrator : The first time I met him, he had some good advice for me.
Michael Moore : [Calling out] Governer Bush, it's Michael Moore!
George W. Bush : Behave yourself, will ya? Go find real work!
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Narrator : Of course, not a single member of Congress wanted to sacrifice their child for the war in Iraq. And who could blame them? Who would want to give up their child? Would you?
[Shot of President Bush appears onscreen]
Narrator : Would he? I've always been amazed that the very people forced to live in the worst parts of town, go to the worst schools, and who have it the hardest are always the first to step up, to defend that very system. They serve so that we don't have to. They offer to give up their lives so that we can be free. It is remarkably their gift to us. And all they ask for in return is that we never send them into harm's way unless it's absolutely necessary. Will they ever trust us again?
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Narrator : In his first eight months in office before September 11th, George W. Bush was on vacation, according to the Washington Post, forty-two percent of the time.
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Michael Moore : [referring to the Saudis] Do they give you any trouble?
Secret Service Agent : Uh, no comment on that.
Michael Moore : Okay, I'll take that as a yes.
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Narrator : As Bush sat in that Florida classroom, was he wondering if maybe he should have shown up to work more often? Should he have held at least one meeting since taking office to discuss the threat of terrorism with his head of counter terrorism? Or maybe Mr. Bush was wondering why he had cut terrorism funding from the FBI. Or perhaps he just should have read the security briefing that was given to him on August 6, 2001 that said that Osama bin Laden was planning to attack America by hijacking airplanes. Or maybe he wasn't worried about the terrorist threat because the title of the report was too vague.
[cut to 9/11 Commission hearing, where Condoleeza Rice is testifying]
Condoleezza Rice : I believe the title of the report was 'Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.'
Narrator : A report like that might make some men jump, but as in days passed, George W. just went fishing. As the minutes went by, George Bush continued to sit in the classroom. Was he thinking, "I've been hanging out with the wrong crowd. Which one of them screwed me? Was it the man my daddy's friends delivered a lot of weapons to? Was it that group of religious fundamentalists who visited my state when I was governor? Or was it the Saudis? Damn, it was them."
[an image of Saddam Hussein appears onscreen]
Narrator : [as George W. Bush] I think I better blame it on this guy.
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Michael Moore : As the attack took place, Mr. Bush was on his way to an elementary school in Florida. When informed of the first plane hitting the world trade center, where terrorists had struck just eight years prior, Mr. Bush decided to go ahead with his photo opportunity.
[Bush enters the classroom]
Michael Moore : When the second plane hit the tower, his chief of staff entered the classroom and told Mr. Bush the nation is under attack.
[Bush picks up a children's book]
Michael Moore : Not knowing what to do, with no one telling him what to do, and with no secret service rushing in to take him to safety, Mr. Bush just sat there, and continued to read "My Pet Goat" with the children.
[the time is measured on a clock in the corner of the screen]
Michael Moore : Nearly seven minutes passed with nobody doing anything.
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[President George W. Bush is a news conference]
George W. Bush : [Regarding the capture of Osama bin Laden] I just don't spend that much time on it, to be honest.
Narrator : 'Don't spend that much time on it?' Just what kind of President was he?
[Cut to the Oval Office, where Bush is being interviewed]
George W. Bush : I'm a war President!
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Jeffrey Tobin : If there was a statewide recount, under every scenario, Gore won the election.
Narrator : It won't matter, just so long as all of your daddy's friends on the Su-preme Court vote the right way.
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Unnamed Voice-over : [following Bush's endorsement of the Coalition of the Willing] The Coalition of the Willing! Roll call!
Unnamed Voice-over : [featuring pictures of each nation - mostly children and simple folk] The Republic of Palau! The Republic of Costa Rica! The Republic of Iceland!
Narrator : Of course, none of these countries had an army, so it looked like we'd be doing most of the fighting ourselves.
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Michael Moore : I couldn't believe that virtually no member of Congress had read the Patriot Act before voting on it. So I decided that the only patriotic thing to do, was for me to read it to them.
[scene switches to Moore driving around Washington D.C in an ice cream truck]
Michael Moore : [ice cream truck music plays] Members of Congress, this is Michael Moore. I would like to read to you the USA Patriot Act.
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Michael Moore : Meet John Ashcroft. In 2000, he was running for re-election as Senator from Missouri against a man who died the month before the election. The voters preferred the dead guy, so George W. Bush made him his Attorney General. He was sworn in on a stack of Bibles, 'cause when you can't beat a dead guy, you need all the help you can get.
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Narrator : Okay, so let's say one group of people, like the American people, pay you $400,000 a year to be president of the United States. But then another group of people invest in you, your friends, and their related businesses, $ 1.4 billion over a number of years. Who are you gonna like? Who's your daddy? Because that's how much the Saudi royals and their associates have given the Bush family, their friends, and their related businesses, in the past three decades.
[scene cuts to George H. W. Bush shaking hands with a member of the Saudi Royal family]
George Bush - Former U.S. President : Seems like a very nice reunion with friends.
Narrator : Is it rude to suggest that when the Bush family wakes up in the morning, they might be thinking about what's best for the Saudis instead of what's best for you or me? Because 1.4 billion just doesn't buy a lot of flights out of the country. It buys a lot of love.
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[last lines]
George W. Bush : There's an old saying in Tennessee. I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee, that says: "Fool me once... "
George W. Bush : [pause]
George W. Bush : "... shame on... ".
George W. Bush : [pause]
George W. Bush : "Shame on you... "
George W. Bush : [pause]
George W. Bush : "If fooled, you can't get fooled again."
Narrator : For once, we agreed.
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Narrator : He couldn't get his judges appointed. He had trouble getting his legislation passed, and he lost Republican control of the Senate. His approval ratings in the polls began to sink. He was already beginning to look like a lame duck president. With everything going wrong, he did what any of us would do. He went... on vacation.
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[Michael Moore is interviewing citizens from Tappahonnock, Virginia, population 2,016]
Michael Moore : Is there any terrorist target around here?
Tappahannock Woman : [Gesturing towards the restaurant behind her] We have a big spaghetti supper in here.
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Narrator : [on Afghanistan being a part of the Coalition of the Willing] Afghanistan? Hmm... oh, yeah. They had an army. Our army! I guess that's one way to build a coalition: just keep invading countries.
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Narrator : While Bush was busy taking care of his base and professing his love for our troops, he proposed cutting combat soldiers' pay by 33% and assistance to their families by 60%. He opposed giving veterans a billion dollars more in health care benefits, and he supported closing veteran hospitals. He tried to double the prescription drug costs for veterans and opposed full benefits for part-time reservists. And when Staff Sergeant Brett Petriken from Flint was killed in Iraq on May 26th, the army sent his last paycheck to his family, but they docked him for the last five days of the month that he didn't work because he was dead.
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Narrator : The FBI was coming to see Barry, and they weren't there to jazzercise.
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Narrator : [referring to homeland security] Okay, let me see if I've got this straight. Old guys in the gym: bad. Peace groups in Fresno: bad. Breast milk: really bad. But matches and lighters on the plane? Hey, no problem.
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[first lines]
Narrator : Was it all just a dream?
Al Gore : God bless you, Florida! Thank you!
Narrator : Did the last four years not really happen? Look, there's Ben Affleck. He's often in my dreams. And the Taxi Driver guy. He was there too. And little Stevie Wonder, he seemed so happy... like, like a miracle had taken place. Was it a dream? Or was it real?
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Byron Dorgan : We had some airplanes authorized at the highest levels of our government to fly to pick up Osama Bin Laden's family members and others from Saudi Arabia and transport them out of this country.
Narrator : It turns out that the White House approved planes to pick up the bin Ladens and numerous other Saudis. At least six private jets and nearly two dozen commercial planes carried the Saudis and the Bin Ladens out of the U.S. after September 13th. In all, 142 Saudis, including 24 members of the bin Laden family, were allowed to leave the country.
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Narrator : Not even Ricky Martin could fly.
