Why We Fight Page #9

presenting it as if it's a factoid.

There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein

now has weapons of mass destruction.

And this was given to us,

action officers to use in papers that

we would prepare for our hire ups, two include

guys like Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld.

The United States knows that Iraq

has weapons of mass destruction.

The U.K. knows that they have

weapons of mass destruction.

Any country on the face of the earth

with an active intelligence program

knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.

These guys were manipulating public opinion

creating falsehoods and fantasies

to inspire fear in the American people,

so that they could have their war.

The President of the United States!

If war is forced upon us,

we will fight with the full force and might of

the United States military and we will prevail.

Evidence from the intelligence sources,

secret communications,

and statements by people

now in custody reveal that

Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists,

including members of Al Qaeda.

I remembered when I was in Vietnam,

we use to get requests:

Can you put my father or my son's name

on the side of the helicopter?

Can you put it on a rocket?

I said:
You know what?

That's a good idea.

I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna try to do that.

So I sent out e-mails to the

secretary of all the arm forces:

I'm a retired NY City

Police Department Sergeant,

and a proud Vietnam Veteran.

I lost my son on 9/11th. I

can't tell you in words...

what his loss means to me.

I would respectfully request

if you could put his...

name on some piece of armament in the Iraq War.

You know, we haven't caught Bin Laden,

but let's do something.

Who's responsible,

Come on, let's hit him!

Iraq was responsible.

Good, let's go!

You say Iraq?

Let's go!

Let's get in there,

let's kick the hell out of them.

It turns out it's not that hard

to get a country to go to war.

That even in the country

like the United States where

there is freedom of information

and multiple media channels

that an admininstration can just dominate

the debate. Dominate the argument.

We have this idea that we have

lots of information available.

There are so much that's not available

and so much of the 'truth'

is obscured by political actors who don't want

the world to see what they're doing.

Needless to say that President is correct.

What's going on, I'm sorry to say, is a belief

that the public doesn't need to know.

What your policy is?

I'm working my way over to figuring out

how I won't answer that.

Limiting access, limiting information

to cover the backsides

of those who are in charge

of the war is extremely dangerous.

And cannot and should not be accepted.

And I'm sory to say, but up to

including the moment of this interview,

that overwhelmingly it has been accepted.

And Pentagon for many

years now since the Vietnam

has worked extremely hard at shaping news

and how the media reports at news.

We train people to say certain

things in a certain way.

Our defeat and humiliation in South Vietnam...

What they learned from Vietnam above all,

was that they lost the war,

because they couldn't keep it private

from the American public.

After the Vietnam war the

Pentagon began studying.

How can we make sure there are no more

body bags in American living rooms?

And we must find the way to no longer allow

reporters in a field actually see death.

You get to the Iraq war

where they discovered this...

new typical Pentagon called it embedding.

Big gun fire coming from

the tops of the building...

We've got to know these marines very well,

we do live with them, we eat with them,

we travel with them.

But I have I think remained objective...

The embedding coverage had flies and banners,

but no one was actually finding out the truth

about the reasons the rationals for going in.

I have great respect for the media.

Our society is a good solid democracy,

because of a good solid media.

But I also understand that a lot of times

are just opinions mixed in with news.

We won't disagree with that, sir.

Must this be really be honest.

Reporters and news organisations

need access to power.

They need the President,

they need the Defense Secretary,

they need these people to speak,

to be on camera, to do interviews.

What you have is a miniature version

what you have in totalitarian state.

They produce films about how

great the great leader is,

how it's getting greater in every way every day.

There will be a day of reckoning for the

Iraqi regime and that day is drawing near.

Ladies and gentlemen, the

United States army orchestra.

Saddam Hussein and his sons

must leave Iraq within 48 hours.

Their refusal to do so will

result in military conflict.

I've only got what's left and I'd rather spend

as much time with my friends as possible.

I got my stuff in storage.

Except for this TV, a couple of weights there

and this right here, this hangers

and this Snoopy soap thing

I've had since before I can remember.

That's just stuff I won't put in storage

cause of its sentimental value.

Never really had that many feelings of place.

My mom lived here for a while.

But my mom is not here anymore,

so all the feelings I had associate with

that place went away along with my mom.

There was a point when I almost

blamed myself for my mom's passing.

I'm handing over the keys...

Because she so didn't want

me to go into service.

I had spoken with her about it.

I said:
If anything goes wrong,

I'm gonna have to go into the service.

I told her that. If anything goes wrong,

if you pass away. I'm gonna

have to go into service.

Because as it is, I can't

take care of myself normally.

What I'm gonna miss the most, just a normal

day sitting down with my friends,

cause that's not what I gonna get from months

on the stretch. That I'm gonna miss.

And this view right here. This view

looking outside of the window.

I've been seeing this since 1990.

I used to hate this view,

I think somehow I still do.

But that's strange to think

I'm gonna actually miss it.

Probably not. That's just buildings.

That's my friends who I'm gonna miss.

I have two sons and I won't allow none of my

children to serve in the United States military.

If you join the military now, you are not

defending the United States of America.

You are helping certain policy makers

pursue an imperial agenda.

On February of 2003 ten

million people around the world

marched to demonstrate against the war in Iraq.

The largest demonstrations in British history.

thousand in New York city.

A million each in Berlin, Madrid, Rome.

On this February day as this nation

stands at the brink of battle,

every American on some level must

be contemplating the possibility of war.

And yet this chamber is for the most part

harmoniously, harmoniously dreadful and silent.

You can hear a pin drop. Listen.

There's no debate.

There's no attempt to lay out from the nation

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