Issues in movie ignored by media

To the editor:

"Fahrenheit 9/11" is packed with footage of events and issues that cannot be easily dismissed. The Bush family does have extensive business ties to the Saudi royal family. Some of President Bush's failed business ventures were funded by the bin Ladens. The Saudis have been given privileges like being flown out of the country rather than being interrogated at a critical moment. Fifteen of the 19 highjackers were Saudi in origin. We did provide Saddam Hussein with chemical and biological weapons components in the 1980s. The list goes on.

The film also shows the human costs of war that are literally taboo in the mainstream press. There are dead and mutilated children, soldiers missing legs and very angry Iraqis. We also see the most gut-wrenching footage one could imagine: a truly patriotic mother who has lost her son in a war that she has come to understand was unnecessary.

Moore also broaches the critical issue of war profiteering at the expense of the taxpayer -- especially that of the increasingly infamous Halliburton corporation.

You may squabble over Michael Moore's person, his motives or his conclusions, but you cannot deny that this film presents lots of legitimate issues and many facts that most Americans previously knew little about. For this, we all owe Moore a great debt. But isn't it a tragic commentary on our democracy that it takes a movie to introduce issues that our mainstream media should be presenting to us every day?

ROBERT POLACK JR., Cape Girardeau