Posts by rem

cannes, france (reuters) - u.s. director michael moore's ``fahrenheit 9/11'' won the top award at the cannes film festival saturday.. thanking the jury headed by cult director quentin tarantino, moore said: ``you will ensure that the american people will see this movie.

'' moore's win capped a politically charged festival, with documentaries and films reflecting troubled times and french show-business workers staging demonstrations and sit-ins to protest against cuts in their welfare benefits..

nice!

rem

For the record, I'll probably see the movie even though I'll feel sick at lining the pockets of that jerk... just like I did when I went to see The Passion. I'm a sucker for controversial films! :)

I wish someone would make a mocumentary about Moore and the making of his "documentaries".

rem

44

Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 wins top award at the Cannes film fest

by Realist in

cannes, france (reuters) - u.s. director michael moore's ``fahrenheit 9/11'' won the top award at the cannes film festival saturday.. thanking the jury headed by cult director quentin tarantino, moore said: ``you will ensure that the american people will see this movie.

'' moore's win capped a politically charged festival, with documentaries and films reflecting troubled times and french show-business workers staging demonstrations and sit-ins to protest against cuts in their welfare benefits..

nice!

rem

Help Moore out? He's already a millionare... does your friend care to send a few bucks my way? Sheesh.

rem

88

Report: U.S. Mistakenly fires on Wedding Party in Iraq

by dubla in

u.s. reportedly kills 40 iraqis at party .

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040519/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_attack_4.

very sad if this turns out to be an accurate report.

rem

Realist,

I just included Germany because it was happening at the same time as Japan. I believe that the situation in Japan, though not identical in any sense, does give hope that another type of Eastern society can be democratized. I think there are too many variables up in the air right now to declare the current attempt a failure at this point.

rem

88

Report: U.S. Mistakenly fires on Wedding Party in Iraq

by dubla in

u.s. reportedly kills 40 iraqis at party .

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040519/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_attack_4.

very sad if this turns out to be an accurate report.

rem

Heathen,

I'm going to give you an analogy, and please don't understand me to try and claim that the situation in Iraq is identical, but I believe the following is good enough in priciple to not be a false analogy:

A radical political group takes over 100 people hostage in a theater. They threaten to kill some hostages every hour. The police know that if they do nothing, innocent people will die. But they also know that if they do try to rescue the hostages there is a good chance that some will be killed in the crossfire. Negotiating with the hostage takers is not progressing and the police decide to go in. Ultimately 20 hostages die during the rescue attempt.

The point? Collateral damage happened. It was unavoidable, but the intent was good. I believe that to ignore intent is to turn everyone into monsters. In this case to ignore intent makes the police look like the bad guys - they killed innocent people.

What I'm getting at is the world is not black and white. Read up on game theory, the prisoner's dilema, zero-sum games, and non-zero sum games and you will begin to understand why it is so difficult to do the "right" thing sometimes - because most times you are chosing between two or more "wrong" things and you have to try and calculate what is the least "wrong".

Is there room for improvement? Probably with better training, more sophisticated technology, and improved rules of engagement. Will it ever be perfect? I doubt it and I don't see the lack of perfection as a reasonalbe excuse for non-action.

Let's criticize where appropriate (and it very well may be appropriate in this instance)... but to expect perfection is not reasonable.

rem

88

Report: U.S. Mistakenly fires on Wedding Party in Iraq

by dubla in

u.s. reportedly kills 40 iraqis at party .

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040519/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_attack_4.

very sad if this turns out to be an accurate report.

rem

Six,

>> Even in the real world, the military should be concious of the need not to kill innocent people. In this particular case, the term "proportionality" comes into play. There obviously was none.

This is speculation because we do not know the whole facts of the case. The last report I saw even indicated that the video footage of dead children was from a completely different event. I believe the military is conscious of the need to not kill innocent people - that's why they have rules of engagement. If those rules of engagement can be improved, I'm all for it. If the soldiers need better training to correctly implement the current rules, then I'm for that as well.

>> Whatever "it" is, our leadership does not have what it takes to accomplish "it"

The history books aren't written yet. We'll see. Whether "it" (democratizing an Arab Muslim State aka Nation Building) is finished by this administration or another, the next generation will either see Bush as a hero or a crackpot. I think it's too early to tell now, just as it was too early to tell during the nation building exercizes in Japan and Germany.

Hopefully, no matter what the outcome, the many mistakes made will be recorded in those history books so they will not be forgotten lest future generations begin to repeat them.

rem

88

Report: U.S. Mistakenly fires on Wedding Party in Iraq

by dubla in

u.s. reportedly kills 40 iraqis at party .

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040519/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_attack_4.

very sad if this turns out to be an accurate report.

rem

Whether you agree with the basis of the war or not, the deaths of innocent civillians has most probably decreased. Instead of thousands of innocent civillians being slowly starved to death, hundreds are now being killed in military operations and by terrorist bombings. Any innocent person dying is sad, but in a world where you can only choose between the lesser of two evils, I think less dead is better than more. That is my opinion and I'm sure others have differing views.

Hopefully the job can be finished as quickly as possible with the least amount of carnage as possible. I don't see any point in arguing that it shouldn't have happened when it already has. Now we need to focus on doing it the most humane way possible.

rem

88

Report: U.S. Mistakenly fires on Wedding Party in Iraq

by dubla in

u.s. reportedly kills 40 iraqis at party .

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040519/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_attack_4.

very sad if this turns out to be an accurate report.

rem

>> The military is not the justice system and has no right to condemn people to death just because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time .

Let's not be silly. A military that can kill bad guys with zero collateral damage only exists in your imagination. We are dealing with the real world here.

That being said, the latest news coming out about this incident is making the wedding claims look mighty suspicious. I say we take neither side as gospel just yet (or ever). I think its premature to be accusing the US military of killing innocent people here.

rem

398

Wasn't Saddam ousted for doing precisely this sort of thing?

by Simon in

utterly disgusting.

those responsible should be lined against a wall and shot.

publicly.. i think that would win more hearts and minds than bombing cities and using gunships on civilian areas.. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4855930/.

rem

Realist,

I can agree with that, but at the same time I don't think it excuses it. Twinkies too cause people to murder here in the US, apparently.

Six,

Yeah, if that's the case, then that is scary.

rem