The path to 9-11

ABC and its parent company Disney are broadcasting a two-part mini-series on Sunday and Monday evening entitled The Path to 9-11. It was primarily based on findings of the 911 commission, with certain gaps filled in with speculation and dramatic license. Will anyone really know, for example, what the terrorists said to one another as they boarded the planes? From the reviews I have read, the movie will emphasize who the true enemy of our nation was in the years 9-11, and point out governmental failures to take the possibility of such an attack seriously. In short, it reflects bias neither toward Clinton nor Bush, but does a service to our nation’s people by reminding us just how long these assassins have hated us and considered themselves at war with America, Israel, and the West.

The airing of the movie has sparked a huge controversy. 200,000 signatures have been collected on petitions gathered by the Democratic National Committee urging ABC not to air the miniseries. Bill Clinton, through his lawyer, wrote a four-page letter in which the former president accused the film’s producers of filling their tale with fabrications and lies. Not to be outdone, Senate Democratic leaders, including Michigan’s own Debbie “Now Bouchard can’t say I’m a do-nothing senator” Stabenow, sent a letter to ABC threatening to pull their broadcast license unless they cancelled the showing of the 9-11 docudrama. One observer puts it succinctly, “Democrats are showing more anger over a movie about 9-11 than they are about 9-11 itself.”

Liberals and progressives claim to be defenders of free speech. It certainly is within their constitutional right to circulate petitions and to express protests over the film; if ABC would cancel the movie, it would be within their rights to do so as well, if they determined that the market demanded it. But to essentially say, “If you show a film which we consider critical of a Democratic president, we are going to cancel your license,” is a clear abuse of governmental authority and a potential threat to free speech about which Americans ought to be vigilant.

Why are Democrats so adamantly opposed to “The Path to 9-11?” With congressional elections a few weeks away, they are clearly fearful that Americans will see through their “Bush lied, people died” chanting and their “Give peace a chance, end the Iraq war now” mantra as evidence that they are not to be entrusted with the defense of our nation.

Posting will update after film’s airing.