“DEFENSE” Contracting…

Weapons of mass destruction

Early in the film, Moore links the violent behavior of the Columbine shooters to the presence in Littleton of a large defense establishment, manufacturing rocket technology. It is implied that the presence of this facility within the community, and the acceptance of institutionalized violence as a solution to conflict, contributed to the mindset that led to the massacre.

Moore conducts an interview with Evan McCollum, Director of Communications at a Lockheed Martin plant near Columbine, and asks him:

“So you don’t think our kids say to themselves, ‘Dad goes off to the factory every day, he builds missiles of mass destruction. What’s the difference between that mass destruction and the mass destruction over at Columbine High School?'”

McCollum responded:

“I guess I don’t see that specific connection because the missiles that you’re talking about were built and designed to defend us from somebody else who would be aggressors against us.”

[edit] “What a Wonderful World”

The film then cuts to a montage of American foreign policy decisions, with the intent to contradict McCollum’s statement by citing examples of how the United States has (in Moore’s view) frequently been the aggressor nation. This montage is set to the song “What a Wonderful World” performed by Louis Armstrong.

The following is an exact transcript of the onscreen text in the Wonderful World segment:

The following is an exact transcript of the onscreen text in the Wonderful World segment:

1. 1953: the U.S. overthrows Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq of Iran. U.S. installs Shah as dictator.
2. 1954: the U.S. overthrows democratically-elected President Arbenz of Guatemala. 200,000 civilians killed.
3. 1963: the U.S. backs assassination of South Vietnamese President Diem.
4. 1963-1975: the American military kills 4 million people in Southeast Asia.
5. September 11, 1973: the U.S. stages coup in Chile. Democratically-elected President Salvador Allende assassinated. Dictator Augusto Pinochet installed. 5,000 Chileans murdered.
6. 1977: the U.S. backs military rulers of El Salvador. 70,000 Salvadorans and four American nuns killed.
7. 1980s: the U.S. trains Osama bin Laden and fellow terrorists to kill Soviets. CIA gives them $3 billion.
8. 1981: the Reagan administration trains and funds “contras.” 30,000 Nicaraguans die.
9. 1982: the U.S. provides billions of dollars in aid to Saddam Hussein for weapons to kill Iranians.
10. 1983: The White House secretly gives Iran weapons to kill Iraqis.
11. 1989: CIA agent Manuel Noriega (also serving as President of Panama) disobeys orders from Washington. U.S. invades Panama and removes Noriega. 3,000 Panamanian civilian casualties.
12. 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait with weapons from U.S.
13. 1991: U.S. enters Iraq. Bush reinstates dictator of Kuwait. (OIL DEAL!)
14. 1998: Clinton bombs “weapons factory” in Sudan. Factory turns out to be making aspirin.
15. 1991 to present: American planes bomb Iraq on a weekly basis. U.N. estimates 500,000 Iraqi children die from bombing and sanctions.
16. 2000-2001: U.S. gives Taliban-ruled Afghanistan $245 million in “aid.”
17. Sept. 11, 2001: Osama bin Laden uses his expert CIA training to murder 3,000 people.