Run, do not walk, to LeadingToWar.com

[EarlG]

and watch their movie for free. I received a promo copy last week and watched it over the weekend, and I highly recommend it to all DUers.

http://www.leadingtowar.com

"Leading To War" is a new documentary about the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, with a simple premise - it is told entirely though news footage. There are no editorial comments, interviews, or guest commentaries - it's just archival footage from the period between Bush's 2002 State of the Union address, to the day of the invasion. The footage is chronologically ordered and is entirely of Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Rice, and the rest of the motley crew giving press conferences, interviews, appearing on the Sunday talk shows, etc.

You may think you remember how awful the run-up to war was, but when you see this footage again, fresh, it's striking how bold the administration was about selling the war, and how incredibly ridiculous some of their justifications were. For example, you might vaguely recall allegations that Saddam had unmanned aerial vehicles capable of spraying WMD, but do you remember when Bush told reporters in all seriousness that "A UAV launched from a vessel off the American coast could reach hundreds of miles inland?" The footage is here.

Go now! Watch the movie! Tell your friends! Did I mention it's FREE?

http://www.leadingtowar.com

k&r if you want to help spread the word!

[Angela Shelley]

1. Kick for the link!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

2. Looks interesting.

I'll watch the movie later when I'm not working.

Thanks.

[Juan_de_la_Dem]

3. Ditto....Thx

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. Kick

to watch when I'm off work.

[yardwork]

5. k&r - thank you!

[lonestarnot]

6. Ack I can barely stand it!

[Auggie]

23. K&R -- but I can't watch. It's too painful.

[Glorfindel]

48. I can't either; those lying monsters are just too much to endure

n/t

[Usrename]

7. Kick for truth!

:kick:

[acmavm]

8. Oh boy, relive all the lies, the propaganda, the treason.

Kicked.

[stellanoir]

9. Thanks for the link.

I'll bookmark it.

Yet I remember the propaganda all too well to watch it but it's nice to have reference to such baloney. They were promulgating it in early '01 long before 9/11.

That's when I invented the obtuse nomenclature of "oligarchical hypnogoguery."

My kid was 10 years old at the time and he said, "Oh mai (that's what he calls me because he's too darned lazy to enunciate the secondary consonants). They are just like poppa. They repeat themselves over and over until everybody believes them.

Back then, I felt that there was nothing that would stop them in their run up to war.

I thankfully don't feel as such currently about Iran.

Thanks for all you do.

[EarlG]

13. I thought I remembered the propaganda well also

After all, I wrote about it week after week in the Top 10. But there's something about seeing this raw footage again that really puts it in historical perspective.

Of course some of the material is very familiar - for example, excerpts from the 2003 SOTU, from Powell's speech to the UN, etc. - but I realized that plenty of the quotes I remembered from that period, I'd only seen written down in newspaper reports. To see the Bush administration actually acting out the whole charade in person is something else, especially with six years of hindsight.

[stellanoir]

14. Yeah 20/20 hindsight certainly often lends an informative perspective for sure.

I totally remember Condi saying incessantly "used chemical weapons against his own people" ad nauseam.

If only Rummy hadn't sold them to him in the first place.

Yikes. What a set frigging up.

"Slam dunk" indeed. . . NOT.

Nothing like "cherry picking" bad intelligence (aka sheer stupidity) from a known extortionist and some loon named "Curveball," to initiate a heinously illegal invasion and occupation.

I was deluded enough to think that Powell was the singular redeeming entity in *co. and the speech he gave before the UN contributed to me thinking for a mere nanosecond that maybe they could pull this BS off.

Boy oh boy if I could have that nanosecond back.

Yikes again.

Thanks for the response.

[stellanoir]

15. Shoot self delete

what's up with these inadvertent duplicate posts lately anyhoo?

They're happening a lot.

No biggie really.

[frog92969]

10. K&R

[qanda]

11. K&R

[proReality]

12. K&R n/t

[flashl]

16. K&R n/t

[me b zola]

17. K&R

[EarlG]

18. Shameless kick

:kick:

[flvegan]

19. K&R, thanks for the link.

Will watch it tonight after work.

[txprog]

20. The unmanned drones of course...

I remember that one well and use it all the time to exemplify the maddness of what they were trying to sell to the American people.

Saddam Hussein, they told us, a tin pot dictator of a third world country with a decimated armed forces, had unmanned drones capable of flying great distances, though the entire US and NATO air defense systems, to deliver some sort of WMD on a major American city.

Could anything be more ridiculous, more absurd? But I guess some people bought this ration of bullshit.

But of more importance. The idiots in the media who gave this stuff any credence whatsover. They are as much to blame as anyone.

[Kurovski]

21. K&R. (nt)

[magellan]

22. knr

[Fire Walk With Me]

24. I seem to remember them saying that aerial vehicles from Iraq could strike our shores

within some 45 minutes of launch. Sounded like bullshit then, sounds like bullshit now.

However, the Halliburton profit motive has since become completely clear.

[Ghost Dog]

25. Linking, thanx.

[Babel_17]

26. Kicked, Recommended, Passed Along (nt)

[hootinholler]

27. The network guys will be upset if I stream this here.

I'll have to look tonight.

-Hoot

[Ghost Dog]

28. And, (not so) BTW: WHERE IS TARIQ AZIZ?

What's going on?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariq_Aziz

[LaurenG]

29. K & R

[wildbilln864]

30. before I wven watch it.....

I'm giving it a k&r! :hi:

[immoderate]

31. Me too!

:)

--IMM

[K-Check]

32. K&R

[Nitrogenica]

33. K&R

The disgusting Neo-Cons should have known this would happen sooner or later.

Things have not gone their way with the American people, and that's what their plan did not predict.

We are smarter than the legendary German people. Freedom has benefits that always help actual truth move along, rather than the "truth" paraded about by those Americans who hate those who disagree with them.

Does Hillary Clinton stand behind this film?

[Martin Eden]

34. I don't know if I can bear to watch it again.

At the time it happend I knew we were being lied to by a bunch of war criminals. When they appeared on television I could barely control my rage -- I felt like a dog with hackles raised on the back of my neck.

The fact that 3 of the biggest ringleaders are still in positions of power in our government has deeply undermined any confidence I had in American democracy.

[ForeignSpectator]

35. K&R

[Laelth]

36. k&r

Least I can do.

:patriot:

-Laelth

[AntiFascist]

37. K&R, amazing that they can get away with this...

and also amazing that a patriotic asshat like McCain can run on a platform of keeping us in Iraq for 100 years!

[xchrom]

38. kick

[barbtries]

39. well, i'm watching it

and so far it's full of the talking heads of people i really sincerely hate for what they have done. i'm not entirely certain i can sit all the way through it. so far it also is validating every sick feeling and belief i have held since before the war began.

even leading up to the election in 2000 i knew if bush became president he would throw a war. he has fulfilled every dread fear i ever entertained about him and then some. sigh

peace. thanks for sharing

edited for typo

[file83]

55. I just got done watching it, and the piece that I forgot was how the Bush Administration

repeatedly emphasized that their goals were: 1) Disarmament and 2) Regime Change.

Over and over: Disarmament Disarmament Disarmament

What blows me away is how they later, after not having found any weapons in which to disarm Iraq of, successfully turned that "Disarmament" meme around into "Spreading Democracy". They fooled more than half the nation in 2004 in to thinking that "No, that's the real reason we went there, to spread democracy!"

I believe the history books will highlight that as the key lesson learned from this time: the power of propaganda in the modern information age.

It blows me away after watching this how glaringly clear the bullshit was, absolute bullshit, and they so far have completely gotten away with it. Well, not completely, because America's economy is suffering now severely because of this war, but that is the history to come...

[barbtries]

60. they've gotten away with it

because of main stream media. complicit in these crimes and utterly subservient to the administration for their favors. don't forget that there were always those who knew, shared, wrote, and spoke the truth. their voices were stifled and are still being stifled, and you cannot even go to the bank or the market anymore without being subjected to CRAP. i haven't looked to msm for the news since before gw and cheney started trying to destroy the democracy of the united states.

i'm finally getting around to reading Conservatives Without Conscience by John Dean. Can't put it down. In the same context i was noting the other day that some MSM hack had actually dissed a british journalist for doing his job (had to do with a comment made by an Obama aide). read a great article on journalism in the US that also discussed Tim Russert's testimony during the Libby trial. Russert actually testified that he does not report anything unless it's okayed by whoever in the administration. how then does he refer to himself as a journalist as opposed to a PR hack? essentially MSM exists at this point in time as an assistant to the lying, murderous thugs in the gw administration.

tonight i listened to a Q&A with Christiane Amanpour (i like her - don't know what kind of job she's doing these days because i don't watch msm). she reminded me of how in the US we refer to the press as the fourth estate. i mourned that designation years and years ago. thank heaven for blogs and alternate news sites, DU and the internet. i have to believe that more more and more people will be turning this way for their news as they realize that the tv is feeding them bullshit.

i did have to turn off the movie. they make me sick. they really do. their voices are like nails on a blackboard and they're always telling LIES. i hope the movie gets wide circulation and i blogged it but in all honesty i could not watch it and don't know if i will ever be able to. and i really want my son to watch it, and learn.

peace

[TrogL]

40. Link to part 4 closed captioned

it's broken on the site

http://www.leadingtowar.com/Film/movs/ltw.eng.4.mov

[KoKo]

41. Thanks...I'll book mark that one......K&R!

[Hawkeye-X]

42. Can they caption it?

Please?

www.overstream.net - tell the folks to take the time to do it!

[Neecy]

43. my god, this was repulsive

It's stunning that not one administration official has been held responsible for the months of utter lies and fearmongering that led to this war.

It's sickening to watch but the record is damning and we shouldn't forget. K&R

[hootinholler]

44. Buy the DVD, support these people! $10 a copy. n/t

[progressoid]

45. Yep, I'm ordering one tonight for my parents.

[barbtries]

61. i'll do that

it's the least i can do since i can't bear to watch. but it is history in the making and should never be lost or forgotten. how we got here...

[seemslikeadream]

46. **EarlG**

I would really like to have a way of seeing the threads from that time but I don't know how to search for them. I'd like to be able to repost some of them

[emdee]

47. Thank you! nt

nt

[strategery blunder]

49. Kick

So I can come back and watch it later. :popcorn:

[kananikui]

50. leading to war

I started watching and my daughter asked me to stop after part 3 - I was talking too much to the screen - just like i had when all of those "heads" had been on tv before. Thank you

[barbtries]

62. same thing in this house

but what i heard was chuckles from my son. he's so used to me cussing out the screen it's normal.

[OhioChick]

51. K&R

:kick:

[nam78_two]

52. What an excellent idea!

I have always thought that this would be a great concept. Just news stories-no comment. Nobody can then say "this is librul bias" blah blah...(well unless you are the kind of dopey conservative who believes that every single news outlet has a librul bias or some such thing :eyes:).

K&R...

[Swamp Rat]

53. This is my kind of documentary... pure footage with no commentary.

:kick:

[ekwhite]

54. K&R N/T

[calmblueocean]

56. ARGH. Why won't either of our candidates support impeachment?!

Yes, I know both Hillary and Barack are Senators and impeachment proceedings begin in the House, but how can you watch fuckers like Cheney just flat out LIE to the American public to goad us into war, and not demand justice? It's the biggest reason I supported Kucinich, and the biggest disappointment I have with our remaining choices. Neither of them says a peep about the crimes of this administration. It's as if we're all supposed to pretend we just woke up and found ourselves in Iraq, found our whole justice system turned upside down, found the Geneva Conventions being ignored, found our Constitution in tatters. And then we're supposed to pretend it doesn't matter how we got here.

Is anyone ever going to be held accountable? Ever?

It doesn't look like it.

Someday, young people are going to watch videos just like this one and ask their grandparents, "So why didn't you guys impeach the people who did this? Why didn't you prosecute them?" And we're not going to have an answer that's worth a damn.

Ugh, this video brings back so much outrage.

[barbtries]

63. yep, yep yep!

i'm in NC. when the candidates come here - IF they do, i hear clinton's sending carville, screw that - i'm going to try to attend and see if i can't get an answer to your question. it absolutely burns in me the need for justice for these murderous lying thugs.

[The Straight Story]

57. Kicking to kiss admin butt

:rofl: seriously though, thanks for that link.

[happygoluckytoyou]

58. I WATCHED YOUR MOVIE----->

but will not take it to the Toronto Film Festival...

..... the characters are too shallow.... the plot thin and not believable... the dialog sounds too phoney.....

kudos for the sets though, the State Of The Union looked real enough but I would recast it with someone who didn't look like a chimp and sound like an asshole... there is no way he will convince anyone he is president of the united states

nice touch with the black extras, add a touch of humanity--- would have been better if one of them played a "good guy/gal" rather than making both of them the liars

may want to get younger actors for the parts of the vice president and the war monger in chief... neither of them looked like they would survive a heart-transplant

all in all, two thumbs down

[Breeze54]

59. Man I was hoping someone would have recorded all of that!

I wanted to record every single hearing etc. at the time but was unable.
I knew that it was all going to be so importnat and was really afraid
that 'some' things would be misplaced. What was said... and not said.

This is a perfect alternative! Thank You for posting it!

:kick: & Recommended

[Lochloosa]

64. Kick for bookmarking

[alteredstate]

65. k & r!

Thank you.

[pamela]

66. K & R & thank you. n/t

[BB1]

67. It's near impossible to turn it off!

My goodness, what powerful material. I'll use it in my next piece on our govt. in Holland. This is the reason every country should have more than 'one' political party.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

68. K & R, I have friends and family members who were rah rahing the run up for whom

this will be very eye opening.

Thank you, :kick: :kick::kick:

on edit, 10 minutes into it, my memory serves me pretty well. It was unbelievable then, it's pretty unbelievable now.

BTW, thank goddess for Helen Thomas.

[tnlurker]

69. I'll watch this later

[Echo In Light]

70. K&R..There are other quality doc films about this too. Thanks for the heads up

[UALRBSofL]

71. EarlG I havn't watched the video yet but I remember

all that crap. The UAV's, the uranium tubes which turned out to be no more then tubes used for kids playground equipment, the yellow cake from Niger where the Plames were outed because he came back and reported there wasn't any. Anyway, thanks for posting the video, I'll watch it.

[Richard Steele]

72. K&R

[burf]

73. To add to the

play list, may I suggest "Why We Fight". It is also available on the web for free. It tells the story of a man who lost his son on 9/11 and found out how all the propaganda was just that, propaganda.

[leveymg]

74. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, I direct you to Peoples Exhibit No. 1. Bailiff, please turn on

the screen."

[jimlup]

75. But unfortunately, it is outdated

While it has historical signifcance, opponents of this war need fresh information about the situation NOW. Unfortunately, that is what I have to counter when debating this catastrophic war.

The debate always goes something like....

"Well we're in Iraq now so what do we do about it?" While I have answers, I need information that counters this arguement. Statistics on the goals of the surge, etc.

Anyway, thanks for the accurate history.

[ChiciB1]

76. Thanks For Posting For Those Who Even Think ANYTHING Will Make A

difference anymore! It's not you, but for me I DON'T need a reminder of ANY of it!! I marched in too many marches, signed too many petitions, made too many calls and wrote too many letters!

Unfortunately NOTHING has been done, and NOW it seems we're back to ZERO!! Hardly ever do we hear about the WAR, so why even get all worked up about it again? It only makes it HURT all the much more!!
JMHO!

[DemBones DemBones]

77. Can somebody tell me how long the movie lasts?

Need to know if I'll need :popcorn:

Seriously, I need to know if I have time to watch it now or should wait until later.

[NM Independent]

78. Freakin WOW

It's amazing how a memory can fade.

Even these...

[mistertrickster]

79. K & R'd -- Thanks for the snag, EarlG. nt

[The Blue Flower]

80. Raising my blood pressure

Can't watch this train wreck again.