Dude, Where's My Country_ - Michael Moore [92]
There you go. You have your marching orders. Don’t fail me, and don’t fail yourself. They outsmarted us once—and they’re supposed to be the stupid white men! Let’s not let it happen again. There’re just too damn many of us to have it end up any other way. We love our country and we care about the world in which our country exists. There is no reason to sink into some self-centered despair or cynicism. There is every reason to put this book down right now, pick up the phone, walk out the door, and make a difference.
Dude, where’s your country? It’s right outside your window, just waiting for you to bring it home.
Notes and Sources
2. Home of the Whopper
President Clinton made his angry denial of infidelity on January 26, 1998, following a presentation on child-care policy in the White House with his wife and the vice president at his side. The text of his statement is on record with the National Archives and Records Administration, and can be read online at: http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/ New/html/19980126-3087.html.
Most of President Bush’s remarks cited in this chapter are posted online at the official White House Web site: www.whitehouse.gov. Tricky to get away with those whoppers, even the little ones, with some damn minion writing down every word you say and putting it on the Internet for everyone to see!
• The various versions of the president’s often-repeated whopper about the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction can be read in their entirety there: January 21, 2003, “President Bush Meets with Leading Economists;” September 12, 2001, “President’s remarks at the United Nations General Assembly;” February 8, 2003, “President’s Radio Address.”
• Making a pitch for Senate hopeful John Cornyn at a fundraising dinner in Houston on September 26, 2002, Bush hinted at a personal vendetta against Saddam: “[T]here’s no doubt his hatred is mainly directed at us. There’s no doubt he can’t stand us. In fact, this is a guy that tried to kill my dad.”
• Bush personally peddled the stories that Iraq attempted to obtain enriched uranium in Africa, and had also attempted to purchase aluminum tubes to help build a nuclear weapons program, in a televised October 7, 2002, speech in Cincinnati, “President Outlines Iraqi Threat.”
• In his Fall 2002 multi-state campaign to drum up support for the Iraq war during October and November, 2002, the president worked to link Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. See: October 28, 2002, “Remarks by the President at New Mexico Welcome;” October 28, 2002, “Remarks by the President in Colorado Welcome;” October 31, 2002, “Remarks by the President at South Dakota Welcome;” November 1, 2002, “Remarks by the President at New Hampshire Welcome;” November 2, 2002, “Remarks by the President in Florida Welcome;” November 3, 2002, “Remarks by the President in Minnesota Welcome;” November 4, 2002, “Remarks by the President at Missouri Welcome;” “November 4, 2002, “Remarks by the President at Arkansas Welcome;” November 4, 2002, “Remarks by the President in Texas Welcome.”
For more information about the companies landing the post-war reconstruction contracts in Iraq worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and their financial contributions to George W. Bush and the Republican Party, check with the Center for Responsive Politics. In particular, check out the report, “Rebuilding Iraq—The Contractors,” at www.opensecrets. org/news/rebuilding-iraq.
Ambassador Joseph Wilson’s credentials are established in his biography provided by the Middle East Institute, a Washington, D.C. think-tank. Over nearly three decades, Wilson served in posts with the National Security Council, the U.S. Armed Forces, Foreign Service, and State Department, and was the last official American to meet with Saddam Hussein before the launching of “Desert Storm.” Wilson’s own account