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=> Re: tour of duty...

Re: tour of duty...
Posted by St. Me (Guest) - Saturday, October 23 2004, 6:38:22 (CEST)
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Lila Lipscomb and Military Casualties

Misleading


Fahrenheit spends a much time on the grief of Lila Lipscomb, the mother of Sgt. Michael Pederson, who died in Iraq in April 2003. Sgt. Pederson was a child from Mrs. Lipscomb's first marraige. He enlisted in the military in 1996, and was 26 years old when he was killed. There is no room in Fahrenheit for bereaved families who feel different from Mrs. Lipscomb. Not even room for the widow Sgt. Michael Pederson, who believes that "Hating President Bush is not going to bring Michael back." Ben Schmitt, "Flint woman spotlighted in Moore's latest movie," Detroit Free Press, May 29, 2004. (The widow was separated from Sgt. Pederson, and their child was living with the widow at the time of his death.)



Mrs. Lipscomb reads for the camera an angry letter which Sgt. Pederson wrote castigating President Bush. Not shown on camera is the fact that Pederson apologized for the letter shortly afterward.



Moore films Mrs. Lipscomb in Washington, D.C., where she tearfully walks to the White House, where she will, in her words, "put all my pain and all my anger and to release it." On the way, Fahrenheit shows Mrs. Lipscomb arguing with a passerby who says that the whole thing is staged. What Fahrenheit does not show is that the passerby talked with Mrs. Lipscomb, heard her side of the story, and apologized on the spot.



Moore has been paying Mrs. Lipcomb's travel expenses to help promote the movie and criticize President Bush. According to the St. Petersburg Times,



She has been so critical of the Bush administration that she wouldn't be surprised if her house is bugged. When she gets dressed, she sometimes acts as if they are watching and listening, giving a play-by-play as she dons her clothing.



"Look guys," she says. "I'm putting on my bra."







Fahrenheit Fahrenheit wallows in pity for Mrs. Lipscomb. "I was tired of seeing people like Mrs. Lipscomb suffer," Moore claims. Yet Moore’s website is not quite so sympathetic:

I’m sorry, but the majority of Americans supported this war once it began and, sadly, that majority must now sacrifice their children until enough blood has been let that maybe -- just maybe -- God and the Iraqi people will forgive us in the end.







parhad wrote:
>ctober 22nd, 2004 3:33 am
>Why Did My Son Die? Military Mom Lila Lipscomb Demands an Answer
>
>Policy Experts and Popular Performers Join Lila Lipscomb on a Mother’s Tour of Duty Around the Nation to Inspire Americans to Question the Iraq War
>
>"Mr. Bush is under no obligation to answer Mr. Moore's charges, but he will have to answer to Mrs. Lipscomb."
>-- The New York Times, June 23, 2004.
>
>WASHINGTON - October 11 - “How do you think it feels for a grieving mother to hear Charles Duelfer, the top CIA weapons inspector for Iraq, state last week that Iraq destroyed its weapons of mass destruction years ago and had no ability to produce more, under sanctions? How do you think it feels to hear White House officials now admit that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11? I want to know: did Michael die for a lie?” asked Lila Lipscomb, the military mother from Flint, Michigan, who is featured in Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” reading from the last letter her son, Michael, sent home from Iraq before he died.
>
>Heartbroken and angry, Mrs. Lipscomb has embarked on a Tour of Duty around America, imploring audiences to question why we invaded Iraq and why our troops are still there. Lipscomb is being joined by popular performers, leading activists and policy experts at a nationwide series of public educational events.
>
>Lipscomb spoke before hundreds yesterday in San Francisco along with Fernando Suarez del Solar, whose son, a Marine, was also killed in Iraq. Folk music legend Joan Baez and former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman will join Lipscomb in Cleveland, OH October 19th. Lipscomb and whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg (invited) will speak at the New York Society of Ethical Culture Concert Hall in New York City October 29th.
>
>Also lending their support for the Tour, with appearances pending confirmation, are Martin Sheen, Rickie Lee Jones, former ambassador to Iraq Edward Peck, Woody Harrelson, former assistant secretary of defense Lawrence Korb, Tim Robbins, former State Department intelligence director Greg Thielmann, comedians Greg Proops, Jimmy Tingle, and Rick Overton, and documentary director Robert Greenwald, among others.
>
>Lipscomb is asking the questions over one thousand American mothers are asking about family members who returned in coffins, and thousands more mothers are asking about the more than 7,500 wounded American servicemen and women.
>
>“My son completed his tour of duty by sacrificing his life for his country,” said Lipscomb. “I now have a duty to wake up this country to stop the war, stop the killing. Maybe, if by speaking out I can prevent other American and Iraqi sons and daughters from dying, I can find some meaning in my son’s death.”
>
>Tour of Duty is being sponsored by Win Without War, the nation’s largest anti-war coalition; Black Voices for Peace; the Fourth Freedom Forum; Peace Action, the nation’s largest grassroots peace organization; Physicians for Social Responsibility; and Women’s Actions for New Directions.
>
>Tour of Duty is an educational, strictly nonpartisan project which takes no position on the outcome of the presidential or any other political race. This project aims to enlighten the public on foreign policy and security issues, and motivate people to vote. More information at http://www.ustourofduty.org.



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