[Flash Walken]

Speaking of documentaries, I just read an article about one...'yet to see it.

Searing documentary on war complicity indicts not just U.S. politicos, but major media, too

It might not be the most Hollywood-slick, user-friendly title, but it couldn't be any more direct in conveying the movie's message. The title? War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.

Although Sean Penn narrates this documentary, his is not the central voice. Rather, it's that of Norman Solomon, the outspoken U.S. journalist/author, on whose book of the same title the film is based.

And if Penn's voice sounds somewhat hushed narrating this searing doc, it's because he, like most others who will catch it, is probably blown away by the compelling case brought to the surface by Solomon and captured so effectively on screen by co-directors Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp .

In short, Solomon suggests that U.S. foreign policy is dictated by a small circle of politicos, the president and his trusted advisers, who have their own agenda that often results in drawn-out wars that can't be won.

Even more damning, though, is Solomon's assertion that the major U.S. media serve as little more than mouthpieces for these politicos and that they are essentially complicit in these wars, too.

It seems that some media, according to Solomon, believe that being embedded with the U.S. military in combat means being in bed with the Pentagon.

Solomon draws fascinating yet frightening parallels between the Vietnam and Iraq wars, both of which have resulted in far too many casualties and emotional scars that could have been avoided. He deconstructs the canard that was the bogus WMDs - weapons of mass destruction - that served as the catalyst for the U.S. invasion of Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

He then indicts much of the media for perpetuating the myths surrounding the WMDs - until the facts emerged and it was no longer fashionable. He is utterly incredulous in recounting how CNN sought the Pentagon's approval for the military experts they conscripted to comment on air on Iraq. But he is not surprised that Phil Donahue, one of the few voices of media dissent on the Iraq war, was canned by MSNBC.

One of the most revealing clips in the doc dates back to 1964, when Oregon Senator Wayne Morse had the temerity to suggest that it was up to the American people, not the president, to formulate U.S. foreign policy. Morse, who at the time was one of only two senators to oppose military involvement in Vietnam, was almost laughed out of Washington for his views.

Well, they ain't laughing now. As for the American people, current stats show that almost the same number - 70 per cent - are as opposed to the war in Iraq as those who were against the Vietnam war.

"We're in a process now where short-circuiting the democratic process is really essential to perpetuating the war - much the same as it was during Vietnam," notes Solomon, in town for the international premiere of the doc at the Montreal World Film Festival.