Soldiers give F9/11 a chance, dislike it

Really terrific piece in Salon in which a journalist tests Michael Moore's assertion that troops love his anti-war film. He takes four active-duty soldiers -- two of them Iraq combat vets, two others who were sure they'd be sent soon -- to a showing at a theater near their Georgia base.

They all disliked it, and stated their opinions in reasonable ways that show Moore erred when he issued his blanket statement about troops loving the movie.

Marks thought the movie was going to be all about Bush; instead, he thought Moore portrayed the Army negatively to illustrate a point. "Toward the end he was saying don't let our soldiers die there while the richer people don't send their kids to the military. At the end he wants you to think, 'These are our kids.' He started off with us as crazy killers ... What are we? I didn't understand what we are."

Hoffman disagreed that the military was composed mainly of poor people. "My dad owns his own company. I joined anyways. It's not all poor people." Garcia said his father is wealthy and lives in Honduras. "But I joined the Army because I wanted to be in the Army."

"Right," Marks agreed. "He could have talked about that football player [Pat Tillman] who died. Instead, he made it seem like everyone who goes into the military is homeless."