[fight_truth_decay]

CUT from Cannes Film Festival:

Cannes film festival (May 11-kick off), star wars raises questions of U.S. imperialism http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/13776.html
DAVID GERMAIN | Associated Press
May 15, 2005

Cannes audiences made blunt comparisons between "Revenge of the Sith" _ the story of Anakin Skywalker's fall to the dark side and the rise of an emperor through warmongering _ to President Bush's war on terrorism and the invasion of Iraq.

Two lines from the movie especially resonated:

"This is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause," bemoans Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) as the galactic Senate cheers dictator-in-waiting Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) while he announces a crusade against the Jedi.

"If you're not with me, then you're my enemy," Hayden Christensen's Anakin _ soon to become villain Darth Vader _ tells former mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). The line echoes Bush's international ultimatum after the Sept. 11 attacks, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."

"When he says, 'If you're not with me, then you're my enemy," it's a flagrant reference to Bush," said 22-year-old Thomas Tiez, a French student who saw the film at Cannes. "That can't be a coincidence."

"That quote is almost a perfect citation of Bush," said Liam Engle, a 23-year-old French-American aspiring filmmaker. "Plus, you've got a politician trying to increase his power to wage a phony war."

Though the plot was written years ago, "The anti-Bush diatribe is clearly there," Engle said.

The film opens Wednesday in parts of Europe and Thursday in the United States and many other countries.

[nosofar]

Though the plot was written years ago, "The anti-Bush diatribe is clearly there," Engle said.

The really sad part is that more and more we see Hollywood slipping in political propoganda (sp?) that this is credible.

[weegee]

We did not go to war until after 3,000 people were murdered and billions of dollars of damage were done.

Saddam had broken the peace soon after 1991's agreement when he continued to arm with missiles that were prohibited under the peace agreement. Should we let felons continue to buy guns too?

Kerry and Clinton were arguing the case for war against Saddam back in 1997 and 1998. They said that we did not quickly run up on the war, that it was a continuation of Saddam's rogue acts.

With the terrorists strike on US soil, the nature of response escalated. Saddam Hussein was funding international terrorism even if he was not funding Al Qaeda (jury is still out on whether he trained such missions). He did fund Harms and the families of homicide bombers in Israel.

Since he was quite clearly working on programs to acquire WMD (whether he was successful or not) and such weaponry would be difficult for free-agent terrorists to safely develop, transport, and store, it is not unlikely that the two could have formed a partnership in the future. Saddam was already in violation. Taking Saddam down served as warning to other nations including Libya.

Then again, what do French college students know about world politics and war?