Michael Moore




From Publishers Weekly
Over the last year, Moore invited soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as their friends and family members, to send him letters. He received "thousands" of responses, mostly via his Web site, and this book presents a sampling of those transmissions. Some are short notes thanking Moore for Fahrenheit 9/11 and ranting against Republicans, but the vast majority are personal stories written with passion and an obvious mixture of emotions—anger at the Bush administration ("I signed a contract with the government to serve in our military, and proudly, but I never thought that our military would be used in such a self-serving, crooked, and disgraceful way"), remorse ("It didn’t hit me until I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 that I was driving the ship that was sending planes to kill people"), fear ("I am wondering if this is the last Christmas I will spend with my son") and sorrow ("Chris, the dead young man, was a former student of mine. This incredibly stupid war now has a face and a name, and I find I can’t quit crying"). A recurring story is that of the naïve teenager who signed up "looking for some extra pocket money and a way to college" and who is now jaded, angry and searching for a way out. In his introduction, Moore writes, "What makes these comments unique and so intense is the fact that they are not the words of the Left or the rhetoric of the antiwar movement—they are the war movement." It’s clear, however, that many of the contributors are Left-leaning or firmly in the Democrats’ camp. Not a word of dissension (and it’s safe to assume the Moore has received letters from those who don’t agree with him) is included here. Nevertheless, this collection packs the emotional punch of a SCUD missile and will open readers’ eyes to the fact that it’s not just the country that’s divided; the soldiers fighting overseas are, too.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Will travel to em64, who won it in my RABCK competition.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! The book arrived yesterday and I'm still so excited about having won something on a prize draw - that happens so rarely :-) And now it has happened twice within a week!

Quick and a bit scary reading, and typical Michael Moore. It is so amazing to see how unprepared and perhaps totally mislead the war against Iraq was started. And the naivite of the Americans who enlisted or joined the National Guard just amazes; I mean if you join the army do you really think that they will NOT send you in case your country starts the war just because the recruiter promised that you will not have to go to real combat!!! Even though I really detest GWB and the American foreign politics at the moment, it did bother me a bit that all the letters were so anti-W and anti-war. It would have given more credibility if there would have been at least one letter criticizing Michael Moore and his documents (some told that at first they hated Moore but seeing Fahrenheit 9/11 made the scales fall...). And the scariest bit was of course that there are always some who profit financially from war and it ain't the soldiers or the civilizians.

From the Tampere October meetup. Will read asap & then pass on to chirel & margih.

Moving and thought-provoking, but not specifically profound, fact-based, or detailed, this compilation of authentic letters was a quick read. Once I started reading, I couldn't stop. Letter after letter of cheers for Moore and jeers for Bush, I quickly grasped the mechanism of it: the build-up of a strong collective protest. I was equally stupefied to learn about the ignorance of the public & the naïveté of the soldiers as I am about the Bush administration and the propagandist media. This book was obviously published in order to prevent the re-election of GWB in 2004. What Moore offers via his work is a valuable standpoint and an alternative opinion/way of action--but just how minced are his words and how propagandist his truth? First and foremost, I was troubled about the unisonous tone of the letters. It would only have been fair to include the normal ratio of hate mail in the bunch to provide a more truthful and plausible picture. Also, the styles of the letters were suspiciously similar. I find it hard to believe these emails were written in a haste, many by average US soldiers at the military bases in Iraq. The writers were obviously very talented, all very much of the literary type with excellent skills in written self-expression and journalistic practices--skills that very few young men and women freshly out of high school possess. For once, I'd like to peek behind the curtains and witness the actual editing procedure.

Dude, Where's My Country? remains on my Wish List. I need to read that one first before making the tempting argument about Moore, too, lacking backup details or using out-of-context details. Will They Ever Trust Us Again? is a book about a collective opinion; I'm expecting his other work to fulfil the promise set by these letters of praise & hope--in terms of facts and carefully analyzed objective first-hand information. In my cynical mind, however, I doubt the real agendas behind the military action and the warped media war are ever going to be disclosed to the public.

*****

[09/11] Passed on to chirel.

This was actually an interesting read. After the second letter i began to wonder if there was any point in reading the rest, but I'm glad I did. I really had no idea how the American military works so through this book i had a chance to learn many little interesting details about the system. I'm sure one day all these details will grow into a story idea (or even a story). There just was this something about these letters.

Many times I had to wonder how naive people can be. So many letters had no more content than *I joined the army and now they make me fight!' Very few had actually made a concieous choice about enlisting. I think that's scary, and apparently the system depends on this naivety feeding it and misleading the young people trying to find a way to get a better life.

For some reason I didn't mind that there were only one opinion in this book. Maybe, because I started reading between the lines searching for story ideas... I mean, it would be interesting to read a pro-Bush, pro-war book after this one, but in this book it would just have broken the atmosphere or something. What did bother me was the amount of cheering for Moore in the letters. The same story over and over again, how people saw his film or read his book and how great they were and thank you Moore for doing a great job... A little too many times in his own book I think.

Sammaltassu decided not to read the whole book. So next to Margih.

Got it from chirel from the meet-up today, thanks :)

Took this from our local meeting.

When I started this book, I thought this would be interesting, but a letter after letter were almost the same. As CatharinaL pointed out, I also got suspicious about the writers behind these letters. If people joining army in the US are the poor and uneducated, how they write these kind of letters? Anyhow, I was not surprised to read how these soldiers are treated and how difficult it is to get back home. It's not only American problem, it's everywhere.

I'm glad I continued reading till the end, as the letters from home were the most touching.

I´ll take this book to our local meet-up.

I take this book into our local meet-up and leave it somewhere in the cafe.

I found the book on a bench in Prisma Kaleva. It seems like an interesting read.