FAHRENHEIT 9/11 Part II/II - part i

WRITTEN, PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY:
MICHAEL MOORE

PART II

(cut to Dick Clarke)

CHARLIE GIBSON: You come in September 12th, ready to plot what response we take to al Qaeda. Let me talk to you about the response that you got from top administration officials. On that day, what did the President say to you?

DICK CLARKE: The President, in a very intimidating way, left us - me and my staff - with the clear indication that he wanted us to come back with the word that there was an Iraqi hand behind 9/11 because they had been planning to do something about Iraq from before the time they came to office.

CHARLIE GIBSON: Did he ask about any other nations other than Iraq?

DICK CLARKE: No. No no no. No. Not at all. It was Iraq, Saddam, find out, get back to me.

CHARLIE GIBSON: And were his questions more about Iraq than about al Qaeda?

DICK CLARKE: Absolutely. Absolutely. He didn't ask my about al Qaeda.

CHARLIE GIBSON: And the reaction you got that day from the defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld? And his assistant, Paul Wolfowitz?

DICK CLARKE: Well, Don Rumsfeld said, uh, when we talked about bombing the al Qaeda infrastructure in Afghanistan, he said there were no good targets in Afghanistan, let's bomb Iraq. And we said but Iraq had nothing to do with this. And that didn't seem to make much difference. And the reason they had to do Afghanistan first was it was obvious that al Qaeda had attacked, and it was obvious that al Qaeda was in Afghanistan. The American people wouldn't have stood by if we had done nothing on Afghanistan.

(cue theme song from TV show "Bonanza," map with stage coach lettering "Afghanistan." Map goes up in flames to reveal credits with the heads of George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and Tony Blair superimposed over characters from the show)

NARRATOR: The United States began bombing Afghanistan just four weeks after 9/11. (music continues, video of Afghanis watching jets fly overhead) Mr. Bush said he was doing so because the Taliban government of Afghanistan had been harboring bin Laden.

PRESIDENT BUSH: We will smoke 'em out of their holes. / We're gonna smoke 'em out. / Smoke 'em out. / Smoke him out of his cave. / WESTERN GUY: Let's rush him and smoke him out.

NARRATOR: For all his tough talk, Bush really didn't do much.

DICK CLARKE: But what they did was slow and small. They put only 11,000 troops into Afghanistan -- there are more police here in Manhattan, more police here in Manhattan than there are US troops in Afghanistan. Basically the President botched the response to 9/11. He should have gone right after bin Laden. The US Special Forces didn't get into the area where bin Laden was for two months.

NARRATOR: Two months? A mass murderer who attacked the United States was given a two month head start? Who in their right mind would do that? (video of Bush)

PRESIDENT BUSH: Anybody say "nice shot?"

RANDOM PERSON: Nice shot. Hell of a shot.

NARRATOR: Or was the war in Afghanistan really about something else? Perhaps the answer was in Houston, Texas. In 1997 while George W. Bush was Governor of Texas, a delegation of Taliban leaders from Afghanistan flew to Houston to meet with Unocal executives to discuss the building of a pipeline through Afghanistan bringing natural gas from the Caspian Sea. And who got a Caspian Sea drilling contract the same day Unocal signed the pipeline deal? A company headed by a man named Dick Cheney: Halliburton.

MARTHA BRILL OLCOTT: The point of view of the US government is this was kind of a magic pipeline (laugh), um, because it could serve so many purposes.

NARRATOR: And who else stood to benefit from the pipeline? Bush's number one campaign contributor, Kenneth Lay, and the good people of Enron. (shot of BBC News website, 3 December 1997) Only the British press covered this trip. Then in 2001, just 5 1/2 months before 9/11, the Bush Administration welcomed a special Taliban envoy to tour the United States to help improve the image of the Taliban government.

WOMAN: You have imprisoned the women. ... It's a horror, let me tell you.

TALIBAN MEMBER: I'm very sorry to your husband; he might have a very difficult time with you.

NARRATOR: Here is the Taliban official visiting our State Department to meet with US officials. Why on Earth did the Bush administration allow a Taliban leader to visit the United States knowing that the Taliban were harboring the man who bombed the USS Cole and our African embassies? Well, I guess 9/11 put a stop to that. When the invasion of Afghanistan was complete we installed its new president, Hamid Karzai. Who was Hamid Karzai? He was a former advisor to Unocal. Bush also appointed as his envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad who was also a former Unocal advisor. I guess you can probably see where this is leading. Faster than you can say Black Gold Texas Tea, Afghanistan signed an agreement with her neighboring countries to build a pipeline through Afghanistan carrying natural gas from the Caspian Sea. Oh, and the Taliban? Uh, they mostly got away. As did Osama bin Laden and most of al Qaeda.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Terror is bigger than one person. And he's just, he's, he's a, he's a person who's now been marginalized, so, I, I don't know where he is, nor... and I just don't spend that much time on it, Ellie, to be honest with ya.

NARRATOR: Didn't spend much time on it? What kinda President was he?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office, uh, in foreign policy matters with war on my mind.

NARRATOR: With the war in Afghanistan over and bin Laden forgotten, the war president had a new target: (video of Fox News credits, 'War on Terror') the American people.

FOX REPORTER: We've got an unusual terror warning from the Feds to tell you about. Fox News has obtained an FBI bulletin that warns terrorists could use pen guns - just like in a James Bond - filled with poison as weapons.

NBC REPORTER: Good evening everyone, America is on high alert tonight just four days before Christmas.

CNN REPORTER: ...a possible terrorist threat.

CBS REPORTER: ...as bad as or worse than 9/11.

REPORTER: But where? How? There's nothing specific to report.

REPORTER: Be on the lookout for model airplanes packed with explosives.

(video of Osama smiling, woman screaming)

FOX REPORTER: And the FBI is reporting ferries may be considered particularly at risk for hijacking.

(video of Osama smiling, woman screaming. Switches to video of cows)

REPORTER: Could these cattle be a target for terrorists?

NARRATOR: Fear works?

REP. JIM MCDERMOTT: Fear does work, yes. You could make people do anything if they're afraid.

NARRATOR: And how do you make them afraid?

REP. JIM MCDERMOTT: Well you make them afraid by creating an aura of endless threat. They played us like an organ. They raised the le-, the orange and up to red and then they dropped it back to orange. I mean, they, they give these mixed messages which were crazy making.

PRESIDENT BUSH: The world has changed after September the 11th. It's changed because we're no longer safe. / Fly and enjoy America's great, uh, destination spots.

SECRETARY RUMSFELD: We've entered what may very well prove to be the most dangerous security environment the world's known.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Take your families and enjoy life.

VP CHENEY: Terrorists are doing everything they can to gain even deadlier means of striking us.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Get down to Disney World in Florida.

REP. JIM MCDERMOTT: It's like training a dog; ya tell him to sit down or ya tell him to roll over at the same time, the dog doesn't know what to do. Well the American people are being treated like that. It was really very very skillfully and, and ugly in what they did.

PRESIDENT BUSH: We must stop the terror. I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you. Now watch this drive. (President driving a golf ball)

REP. JIM MCDERMOTT: They will continue, in my view, as long as this administration's in charge. Every once in a while still leading everybody to be afraid, just in case you forgot. It's not gonna go down to green or blue. It's never gonna get there. There clearly is no way that anyone can live constantly on edge like that.

PROMOTIONAL VIDEO, ZYTECH ENGINEERING: The harsh reality facing American families today is that they're not as safe as they used to be. Drug dealers and users looking for their next fix. Gangs who roam the streets in search of their next victim. And the growing threat of terrorists means the need for protection is ever greater. And now, that protection is here. Zytech Engineering LLC has developed and tested a safe, highly affordable to the average American citizen, the kind of protection formerly attainable only by the wealthy or powerful.

GUY ON VIDEO: Heck, you can be sitting in here drinking your finest Bordeaux while chaos is erupting outside.

SECRETARY RIDGE: Every family in America should prepare itself for a terrorist attack.

MATT LAURER: Now to escaping from a skyscraper. John Rivers is the CEO of the Executive Chute Corporation. Good morning to you, John.

JOHN RIVERS: Good morning, Matt.

MATT LAURER: Tell me about the product you're bringing to the market.

JOHN RIVERS: It's a, uh, emergency escape chute. It's an option of last resort.

MATT LAURER: How high do you have to be in the building for that chute to actually take effect?

JOHN RIVERS: You only have to be on the 10th floor or above.

MATT LAURER: They can put this on themselves?

JOHN RIVERS: Right, they can put this on themselves in as easy as about thirty seconds. ... It's real easy to put on. (shot of Rivers and a female assistant, Jamie, holding an escape chute. Begins fumbling around with it, with her, trying to help her get the thing on) It's easy to put on, but uh... when you first get this chute you're gonna wanna put it on and try it on a few times yourself.

MATT LAURER: Jamie's havin' a little trouble puttin' that thing on, I wanna mention. I mean, is, is this something that, that you honestly think that in a moment of, of panic that someone can, can operate properly?

JOHN RIVERS: Oh yeah. Yeah, it is. It's it's, this is actually, uh, Jamie's probably never put this thing on before in her life, so... (Jamie utters something unintelligible) It's okay. Don't worry about it. It's it's something that when you get it you're gonna wanna put it on several times.

REPORTER: Well despite the raising of the terror alert level, residents here in Saginaw are continuing with their Christmas errands. / Francis Troik and her family do some last minute shopping knowing that al Qaeda is planning to attack America. She says being in Saginaw doesn't make her feel any safer than if she was in New York City.

FRANCIS TROIK: Midland is close by, and I said Detroit's not far, not that far away. I said there ain't gonna be someone in Flint, that's gonna be concerned for people out here.

RANDOM MAN: You, you never know where they're gonna hit. You never know where they're gonna hit.

REPORTER: But one potential target specifically mentioned by the terrorists has security officials baffled. It’s tiny Tappahannock, Virginia, population 2,016. Such an attack could generate widespread fear; that even here in rural small-town America, no one is entirely safe.

ROY GLADDING (MAYOR): On the six o'clock news there was something about a terrorist alert in Tappahannock.

NARRATOR: (to County Sheriff) What'd the FBI tell you?

SHERIFF: Well they contacted me by phone, uh, basically let me know they're worried 'bout Tappahannock. That's how it started.

ROY GLADDING: In their so-called chatter that they picked up they wasn't sure... Tappahannock... there's a Rappahannock County, this is the Rappahannock River.

WOMAN w/CHILDREN: There is a Rappahannock, a place called Rappahannock, and they got it mixed up.

NARRATOR: Is there any terrorist target around here?

ROY GLADDING: Not that we can really think of.

SHERIFF: It can happen anywhere.

ROY GLADDING: We have a Wal-Mart here.

WOMAN w/CHILDREN: We have spaghetti supper in here (?).

MAN W/HOSE: Carwash probably.

NARRATOR: Are you real suspicious of outsiders?

MAN IN SLEEVELESS SHIRT: Oh yeah.

(video of missiles launching from battleship)

NARRATOR: On March 19, 2003, George W. Bush and the United States military invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq. A nation that had never attacked the United States. A nation that had never threatened to attack the United States. A nation that had never murdered a single American citizen.

(video of dead child; Iraqis asking what was his crime in Arabic, calling Americans cowards)

(more video of wounded and dead in Iraq)

IRAQI: To find this, this piece of my neighbor, young girl, age twenty, some part of her body. That's all.

AMERICAN SOLDIER #1: There is a lot of innocent civilians that were killed. And I think that's because, uh the US Army, ya know, we came in, and we knew it wasn't gonna be easy, and they much pretty much at first shot anything that moved.

AMERICAN SOLDER #2: More happens, and the fighting starts, ya know, it's kinda like we're pumped up, motivated, ready to go...

AMERICAN SOLDIER #3: It's the ultimate rush cuz you're going into the fight to begin with, and then you got a good song playing in the background and uh, that gets you real fired up. Ready to do the job.

AMERICAN SOLDIER #2: You can hook your CD player up to the tank's internal communications...

AMERICAN SOLDIER #4: To the Charlie Box.

AMERICAN SOLDIER #2: So that way when you put your helmet on you can hear it through the helmet.

AMERICAN SOLDIER #5: This is the one we listen to the most. This is the one we travel, we kill the enemy. (pointing to Drowning Pool CD) Drowning Pool, 'Let the Bodies Hit the Floor,' is just fitting for the job that we're doing.

(more video of wounded, dead)

AMERICAN SOLDIER #6: We picked The Roof Is On Fire because uh, basically it symbolized Baghdad bein' on fire and uh, and at the time we wanted it to burn to get Saddam and his regime out. The roof is on fire... we don't need no water let the mother fuckers burn... burn mother fucker... burn.

AMERICAN SOLDIER #7: This is a whole totally different picture here being pushed into the city, urban warfare in a tank, you know.

AMERICAN SOLDIER #8: Civilians... civilians, it gets... you don't know whose the enemy...

AMERICAN SOLDIER #9: This is a lot more real and true (graphic close-up of injured Iraqi) than a video game. A lot of people thought it was gonna be, "Oh yeah, look through the sight and shoot." No. A lot of this is face to face and especially ridin' by after some of the bombs that went off and seein' all the people on the side of the road blow'd up (more graphic video). All the smells around you, I mean from the people lyin' dead rotted... it's a lot more gruesome than you think.

AMERICAN SOLDIER #10: We called in some artillery and some napalm and things like that. Some innocent women and children got hit. (graphic images of dead women and children) We met them on the road and they had little girls with noses blown off and uh, husbands carrying their dead wives and things like that. And that was extremely difficult to deal with because you're like, you're like, "Shoot. What the hell do we do now?" (video from fighter jet targeting and blowing up a building)

SECRETARY RUMSFELD: The targeting capabilities and the care that goes into targeting is (as he's speaking, video shows of Iraqi child having part of his head stitched back on, crying), is as impressive as anything anyone could see. The care that goes into it, the humanity that goes into it...

IRAQI WOMAN: (subtitles) They slaughtered us. God will destroy their houses. God is great. Victory to Iraq!

IRAQI REPORTER: (subtitles) You mean they killed civilians?

IRAQI WOMAN: Yes, civilians! It's our uncles house! We're all civilians. There is no militia here. I pray to God to avenge us. I can only count on you, God. (crying) We've had five funerals because of the bombings. Oh God. Oh God! God save us from them. Where are you God?

BRITNEY SPEARS: (looking hot) Honestly, I think we should just trust our President in every decision that he makes and we should just support that. You know? And, um, be faithful in what happens.

REPORTER: Do you trust this President?

BRITNEY SPEARS: Yes, I do.

NARRATOR: Britney Spears was not alone. The majority of the American people trusted the President. And why shouldn't they? He'd spent the better part of the last year giving them every reason why we should invade Iraq.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Saddam Hussein has gone to elaborate lengths, spent enormous sums, taken great risks to build and keep weapons of mass destruction.

SECRETARY POWELL: Saddam Hussein is determined to get his hands on a nuclear bomb.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Nuclear weapon. / Nuclear weapon. / Nuclear weapon.

SECRETARY POWELL: Active chemical munitions bunkers. Mobile production facilities.

PRESIDENT BUSH: We know he's got chemical weapons. / He's got 'em. / He's got 'em. / He's got 'em.

NARRATOR: Huh, that's weird. Because that's not what Bush's people said when he first took office.

SECRETARY POWELL: (subtitle "February 2001") He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction; he is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors.

CONDOLEEZA RICE: (subtitle "July 2001") We are able to keep arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists. Including members of al Qaeda.

VP CHENEY: There was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Saddam / al Qaeda / Saddam / al Qaeda / Saddam / al Qaeda / Saddam / Saddam / Saddam / al Qaeda

SECRETARY RUMSFELD: It is only a matter of time before terrorists states armed with weapons of mass destruction develop the capability to deliver those weapons to US cities.

SECRETARY POWELL: What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence.

PRESIDENT BUSH: This is a man who hates America. / This is a man who cannot stand what we stand for. / His willingness to terrorize himself. / He hates the fact, like al Qaeda does, that we love freedom. / After all, this is a guy that tried to kill my dad at one time.

REP. JIM MCDERMOTT: They simply got people to believe that there was a real threat out there, when in fact there wasn't one.

SECRETARY RUMSFELD: You get told things every day that don't happen. It doesn't seem to bother people.

NARRATOR: Of course, the Democrats were there to put a stop to all these falsehoods.

SEN. TOM DASCHLE: I will vote to give the President the authority he needs.

SECRETARY POWELL: The United States is prepared to lead a Coalition of the Willing that will do it.

PRESIDENT BUSH: When I say we will lead a Coalition of the Willing to disarm him if he chooses not to disarm, I mean it.

REPORTER: Who is in that Coalition of the Willing?

PRESIDENT BUSH: You will find out who is in the Coalition of the Willing.

(words "Coalition of the Willing" appear over a globe)

VOICEOVER: The Coalition of the Willing roll call: the Republic of Palau. The Republic of Costa Rica. The Republic of Iceland.

NARRATOR: Of course none of these countries has an army or, for that matter, weapons. (showing video clips of people pounding rocks, riding horses and such) So it looked like we'd be doing most of the invading stuff ourselves. But then there was also...

VOICEOVER: Romania. The Kingdom of Morocco.

NARRATOR: Morocco wasn't officially a member of the Coalition, but according to one report, they did offer to send 2,000 monkeys to help detonate landmines.

PRESIDENT BUSH: These are men of vision.

VOICEOVER: The Netherlands.

PRESIDENT BUSH: And I'm incredibly proud to call 'em allies.

(video of baboons sitting at a conference table)

VOICEOVER: Afghanistan.

NARRATOR: Afghanistan? Hm. Oh yeah, they had an army. Our army! I guess that's one way to build a coalition: just keep invading countries. Yes, with our mighty coalition intact (more video of primitive folk wrestling, riding bikes, being very non-Western European... except for the bikes), we were ready.

SECRETARY RUMSFELD: One could almost say it's the mother of all coalitions.

NARRATOR: Fortunately we have an independent media in this country who would tell us the truth.

SHEPERD SMITH: The rallying around the President, around the flag, and around the troops clearly has begun.

AMERICAN SOLDIER #11: And we're gonna win!

LINDA VESTER: You really have to be with the troops to understand the kind of adrenaline rush they get.

KATIE COURIC: I just want you to know I think Navy SEALS rock.

REPORTER: The pictures you're seeing are absolutely phenomenal.

DAN RATHER: When my country's at war, uh, I want my country to win.

PETER JENNINGS: Iraqi opposition has faded in the face of American power.

REPORTER: What you're watching here is truly historic television and journalism (video of embed by tank).

REPORTER: It was absolutely electrifying. They actually had to strap me in with my camera in the back of the plane.

TED KOPPEL: An awesome synchronized killing machine.

DAN RATHER: There is an inherent bias in the coverage of the American press in general.

NEIL CAVUTO: Am I slanted and biased? You're damned well bet I am.

NARRATOR: But one story the media wasn't covering was the personal story of each and every soldier who was killed in the war. The government would not allow any cameras to show the coffins coming home. That kind of story is a downer, especially when you're getting ready for a party on a boat.

(Bush on aircraft carrier)

PRESIDENT BUSH: My fellow Americans (pan up to 'Mission Accomplished' sign), major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.

(video of bomb going off by a soldier, soldiers dealing with aftermath)

(panorama of cemetery as voiceovers from reporters reading "current" numbers of troop deaths in Iraq -- ends with "largest number of military deaths since Vietnam")

PRESIDENT BUSH: There are some who feel like if they attack us that we may decide to leave prematurely. They don't understand what they're talking about if that's the case. Let me finish. Um, there are some who feel that the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is bring 'em on.

(videos of contractors mutilated in Fallujah)

AMERICAN SOLDIER #12: The United States just plannin' on walkin' in here like it was gonna be easy and all but, it's not that easy to conquer a country, is it?

DAN RATHER: The renewed battle for control of Iraq raged for fourth day today with street clashes in nearly every corner of the country. Iraq could become, quote, another Vietnam.

REPORTER: Officials they see evidence that Sunni and Shiite extremists might be joining forces.

PRESIDENT BUSH: They're not happy they're occupied. I wouldn't be happy if I were occupied either.

(videos of insurgents / terrorists)

REPORTER: Two Japanes aid workers and a journalist kidnapped by men calling themselves the Mujhadeen Squadrons. (video of terrified captives, knives held to their heads) They've threatened to burn these hostages alive if Japan does not withdraw its troops from Iraq within three days.

OFF-SCREEN: What's happened?

THOMAS HAMMILL: Well, they attacked our convoy. (man in black mask speaking in Arabic beside him)

REPORTER: The Pentagon might keep up to twenty-four thousand troops in combat beyond their tour.

AMERICAN SOLDIER #13: I know our numbers in the military have gone down. They talk about retention.

AMERICAN SOLDIER #14: You never really expect to be deployed this long. I don't think anybody did.

AMERICAN SOLDIER #15: I don't have any clue as to why we're still in Iraq.

AMERICAN SOLDIER #16: If Donald Rumsfeld was here, I'd ask him for his resignation.

NARRATOR: With the war not going as planned, and the military in need of many more troops, where would they find the new recruits?

REPORTER: Military experts say three times the 120,000 US troops now deployed would be needed to pacify and rebuild the country.

NARRATOR: They would find them all across America in the places that had been destroyed by the economy. Places where one of the only jobs available was to join the Army. Places like my hometown of Flint, Michigan.

POTENTIAL RECRUIT: And I was watchin' TV one day and they showed like some of the buildings and areas that had been hit by bombs, and things like that, and when I was watchin' I got to thinkin' there's places in Flint look like that, and we ain't been in a war.

RANDOM MAN: Look at the neighborhood I live in. Most of them are abandoned (video of tiny, abandoned homes). I mean, that's not right. You want to talk about terrorism? Come right here. President Bush, right here, come. Come right here. He's knows about this corner -- I e-mailed him.

LILA LISCOMB: At the end of January of '04 the unemployment rate in Flint was actually 17%. But you have to take into consideration as well that when you're unemployment runs out you're no longer counted. I would have to say that we're probably close to at least 50% not working or under-employed. (nodding, then shaking head) Because being under-employed is just as dangerous. ... So my family has gone through the welfare system when it was jobs-central; in the mid-80s I came through the job training partnership program here at jobs central and I went to a secretary school. Years later I'm the executive assistant to the president of the agency (shrugs). Interesting (laughs).

My mother used to tell me all the time, "Why do you always go for the underdog? It was because the underdog is who needed me. The people who don't have anything, that's who I have to fight for and that's who I've fought for my entire life. I started taking my children and telling my children the military is a good option; I can't afford to have you go to college, I can't pay your way, financial aid will not help you, so I as a mother started teaching my children about the options that the military could do. ... They would take them around the world, they would see all of the things that I as a mother could not let them see, they would pay for their education as I as their mother and their father could not pay for.

NARRATOR: The military is a good option for kids in Flint.

LILA LISCOMB: The military is an excellent option for people in the city of Flint.

NARRATOR: (at a training technology center) How many of you have a friend or a family member in the service? (men raise hands) Anybody currently serving overseas? (men answer "Germany," "Iraq," etc.)

POTENTIAL RECRUIT: There's like an army or navy recruiter that's up there almost every week. It's in the lunchroom, recruiting students from the lunchroom.

(Army National Guard commercial)

STUDENT #1: I'm going into the Air Force myself, I'm goin' to take the year off probably after high school and then just go and make a career. I wanna be an aircraft maintenance technician.

STUDENT #2: I ran into a recruiter and, uh, there was something I noticed about it and this is kind of on another, it's just, I noticed it was odd. It was more like he was hiring me for a job than recruiting me for the army. It was the way he approached me... approached a friend of mine. ... It was at Borders Books & Music. (video of car ride) He just came up, it was, it was his business card. He had business cards made for the army and everything.

(video of Marines walking towards a Wal-Mart)

NARRATOR: Meet Marine Staff Sgt. Dale Cortman and Sgt. Raymond Flower. They are two of the many recruiters assigned to Flint, Michigan. They're very busy these days.

MARINE #1: (about man jogging) Look at him, he's runnin' around already.

MARINE #2: Yeah. Whatta we got here?

MARINE #1: A little gangsta.

MARINE #2: Yeah. Probably going over to the Courtland Mall now.

NARRATOR: They decided not to go to the wealthier Genesee Valley Mall in the suburbs. They have a hard time recruiting people there. Instead, they went to the other mall.

MARINE #1: Let's go in through Mervin's. And then we'll walk...

MARINE #2: ... straight down...

MARINE #1: ... straight back...

(cut to them walking through the parking lot, approaching two young men)

MARINE #1: Gents, you know we're looking at ya, right?

MARINE #2: You guys ever think about joining up?

PROSPECT: Thought about goin' to college to play basketball or something like that.

MARINE #1: You gonna do it?

PROSPECT: I think, oh yeah, especially to play basketball.

MARINE #1: Good. You can play ball for the Marine Corps as well, travel around the world, gettin' on Marine Corps basketball teams. David Robinson was in the military as well.

PROSPECT: Was he?

MARINE #1: Yep. So you can definitely hook it up.

(cut away)

MARINE: Right now there's somebody out there who wants to be a Marine but has no idea how to do it.

(cut back)

MARINE #2: Where do you work at?

PROSPECT: I work at KFC.

MARINE #2: Really? You can hook us up with some deals?

PROSPECT: Yeah.

(cut away)

MARINE: They're waitin' to get recruited.

(cut back)

PROSPECT: I don't know, I'm probably gonna try to get a little career in music or somethin'.

MARINE #1: Career in music. Maybe we can get you a career in music. You know what the Marines go for -- I'm sure you know who Shaggy is, right? (picture of Shaggy)

PROSPECT: Yeah.

MARINE #1: You know anything about him?

PROSPECT: Yeah, he's a Jamaican, uh, yeah...

MARINE #1: How about a former Marine?

PROSPECT: Whoa.

MARINE #1: Did you know it? ... You definitely need to know a discipline if you're gonna get into music, especially discipline with the money. If you're makin' money you need to manage that money. So come in the office, we can sit down and talk... show you everything we know about the Marines. Sound like a plan?

MARINE #2: What do you got goin' on later this afternoon? ... How about tomorrow? ... Say around ten o'clock Monday morning?

PROSPECT: Yeah, that sounds pretty good.

MARINE #1: Want me to come pick you up?

(cut away)

MARINE #2: Better to get 'em when they're one's and two's...

MARINE #1: Hey pal. / Ladies, you ready to join up. / Oh, he's young, he's young. / We got two over here. Right over by the red van. / You go that way, I go this way, we'll corner 'em.

---

MARINE #1: You're in the ninth grade?

PROSPECT: Yes sir.

MARINE #1: Man, you look older than ninth grade. So, alright. Well, here's my card...

---

MARINE #2: You ever thought about bein' a Marine, man?

MAN: Uh, thought about it, but I got a wife and kid now.

MARINE #2: Even more reason to join.

---

MARINE #1: What I want to do man, real quick, is just get some information from you so I can scratch you off my list sayin' I've already talked to you and you're not interested. Is that cool?

PROSPECT: Yeah.

MARINE #1: What's your name? / Phone number. / What's your address? / Add another one to the list.

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MAN: However, you know, one would love to have the chance to experience college life you know and stuff young people can do without having the risk of dying in the process, I guess I can say candidly.

(subtitle "Iraq, Christmas Eve")

AMERICAN SOLDIER #14: The holidays do add a little bit more friction as opposed to just another night, in that we want to give our guys a little time off, a little time to relax. However, we are in a combat zone. My soldiers do recognize that fact.

AMERICAN SOLDIER #15: Everybody's a little bit nervous about it, I guess.

AMERICAN SOLDIER #16: We're professionals, we're gonna take care of you. I promise. (laugh)

AMERICAN SOLDIER #14: Every house here has the right to have weapons. The maximum is one AK-47. We always expect the targets to be armed.

AMERICAN SOLDIER #16: Rock and roll.

('Santa Claus is Coming to Town' playing on radio)

(camera follows some soldiers around... music interrupted by gunfire)

part i