Monday, November 30th, 2009

Dear President Obama,

Do you really want to be the new "war president"? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do -- destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they've always heard is true -- that all politicians are alike. I simply can't believe you're about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn't so.

It is not your job to do what the generals tell you to do. We are a civilian-run government. WE tell the Joint Chiefs what to do, not the other way around. That's the way General Washington insisted it must be. That's what President Truman told General MacArthur when MacArthur wanted to invade China. "You're fired!," said Truman, and that was that. And you should have fired Gen. McChrystal when he went to the press to preempt you, telling the press what YOU had to do. Let me be blunt: We love our kids in the armed services, but we f*#&in' hate these generals, from Westmoreland in Vietnam to, yes, even Colin Powell for lying to the UN with his
made-up drawings of WMD (he has since sought redemption).

So now you feel backed into a corner. 30 years ago this past Thursday (Thanksgiving) the Soviet generals had a cool idea -- "Let's invade Afghanistan!" Well, that turned out to be the final nail in the USSR coffin.

There's a reason they don't call Afghanistan the "Garden State" (though they
probably should, seeing how the corrupt President Karzai, whom we back, has his brother in the heroin trade raising poppies:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28intel.html ). Afghanistan's nicknameis the "Graveyard of Empires." If you don't believe it, give the British a call. I'd have you call Genghis Khan but I lost his number. I do have Gorbachev's number though. It's + 41 22 789 1662 ( http://www.greencrossinternational.ne/contact-us ). I'm sure he could give you an earful about the historic blunder you're about tocommit (
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latest-news/gorbachev-obama-prepare-ground-withdrawal-afghanistan).

With our economic collapse still in full swing and our precious young men and women being sacrificed on the altar of arrogance and greed, the breakdown of this great civilization we call America will head, full throttle, into oblivion if you become the "war president." Empires never think the end is near, until the end is here. Empires think that more evil will force the heathens to toe the line -- and yet it never works. The heathens usually tear them to shreds.

Choose carefully, President Obama. You of all people know that it doesn't have to be this way. You still have a few hours to listen to your heart, and your own clear thinking. You know that nothing good can come from sending more troops halfway around the world to a place neither you nor they understand, to achieve an objective that neither you nor they understand, in a country that does not want us there. You
can feel it in your bones.

I know you know that there are LESS than a hundred al-Qaeda left in Afghanistan! A hundred thousand troops trying to crush a hundred guys living in caves? Are you serious? Have you drunk Bush's Kool-Aid? I refuse to believe it.

Your potential decision to expand the war (while saying that you're doing it so you can "end the war") will do more to set your legacy in stone than any of the great things you've said and done in your first year. One more throwing a bone from you to the Republicans and the coalition of the hopeful and the hopeless may be gone --and this nation will be back in the hands of the haters quicker than you can shout
"tea bag!"

Choose carefully, Mr. President. Your corporate backers are going to abandon you as soon as it is clear you are a one-term president and that the nation will be safely back in the hands of the usual idiots who do their bidding. That could be Wednesday morning.

We the people still love you. We the people still have a sliver of hope. But we the people can't take it anymore. We can't take your caving in, over and over, when we elected you by a big, wide margin of millions to get in there and get the job done. What part of "landslide victory" don't you understand?

Don't be deceived into thinking that sending a few more troops into Afghanistan will make a difference, or earn you the respect of the haters. They will not stop until this country is torn asunder and every last dollar is extracted from the poor and soon-to-be poor. You could send a million troops over there and the crazy Right still wouldn't be happy. You would still be the victim of their incessant venom on hate radio and television because no matter what you do, you can't change the one thing about yourself that sends them over the edge.

The haters were not the ones who elected you, and they can't be won over by
abandoning the rest of us.
President Obama, it's time to come home. Ask your neighbors in Chicago and the parents of the young men and women doing the fighting and dying if they want more billions and more troops sent to Afghanistan. Do you think they will say, "No, we don't need health care, we don't need jobs, we don't need homes. You go on ahead, Mr. President, and send our wealth and our sons and daughters overseas, 'cause we don't need them, either."

What would Martin Luther King, Jr. do? What would your grandmother do? Not send more poor people to kill other poor people who pose no threat to them, that's what they'd do. Not spend billions and trillions to wage war while American children are sleeping on the streets and standing in bread lines.

All of us that voted and prayed for you and cried the night of your victory have endured an Orwellian hell of eight years of crimes committed in our name: torture,rendition, suspension of the bill of rights, invading nations who had not attacked us, blowing up neighborhoods that Saddam "might" be in (but never was), slaughtering wedding parties in Afghanistan. We watched as hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians were slaughtered and tens of thousands of our brave young men and women were killed, maimed, or endured mental anguish -- the full terror of which we scarcely know.

When we elected you we didn't expect miracles. We didn't even expect much change. But we expected some. We thought you would stop the madness. Stop the killing. Stop the insane idea that men with guns can reorganize a nation that doesn't even function as a nation and never, ever has.
Stop, stop, stop! For the sake of the lives of young Americans and Afghan civilians, stop. For the sake of your presidency, hope, and the future of our nation, stop. For God's sake, stop.

Tonight we still have hope.
Tomorrow, we shall see. The ball is in your court. You DON'T have to do this. You can be a profile in courage. You can be your mother's son.

We're counting on you.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
http://www.michaelmoore.com/

P.S. There's still time to have your voice heard. Call the White House at
202-456-1111 or email the President: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact .

Wow. He's such a blowhard.

He knoes as well as anyone else that a complete withdrawl in a very short period of time would cause nothing but chaos.

Love Moore, but gotta disagree on this one. I think his military and his counsel probably know more about what is actually going on than Michael of any other civilian Joe. I believe the decision he makes takes their experience and knowledge into consideration as well as the emotions of his constituency.

Michael Moore is an idiot.

We were attacked by Al Qieda from Afghanistan.
This is where we should have concentrated our efforts for the last 8 years. Not in Iraq.

People were openly and loudly against the illegal war in Iraq.
We should never have invaded Iraq.

They were not against the War in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan was mostly ignored.
We need to finish the job in Afghanistan.

Personally, I think it needs to be all America's sacrifice.
I do not think 30,000 is enough.
We should draft and send 300,000.

all due respect, there's no proof that Al Qaeda was behind 9 11. Just because they sanctioned it, doesn't hold them personally responsible. The alleged mastermind, KSM was never apart of this made up organization. Having lived in the middle east, I can testify that this so called terrorist group was never heard of until after 9 11.
Whether you agree with MM or not, it's his opinion and right to protest our involvement. Washington can't make up their mind for the reason we're still there, and gladly will use "freedom" and "fighting the taliban" as a scapegoat.

Michael Moore for President now .
Obama is in the same dark tunnel of his predecessor .
War president ?. Yes inded. War president on the poor, the weak and those who can not defend themselves .
Bullying, tyranny and lies are the politics here . What next ?.
Happy manipulations and happy deceptions !!.

the Rush Limbaugh of the left

He knoes as well as anyone else that a complete withdrawl in a very short period of time would cause nothing but chaos.

^so, big deal...were you as concerned with sending our troops over to those third world countries where the mercenaries killed the men and raped the women so badly they needed to be surgically repaired....No one cares about that because they have no natural resources we can rape from the countryside. America needs to clean up its own back yard before declaring someone else's front dirty. Our young men and women are walking around in afganistan and Iraq with targets on their backs, it's not a war but a turkey shoot.....and there is a lesson to be learned about when the afgans kicked Russia's a.s.s with primitive weapons, now they are on an even playing field with the U.S. same result.

Yes, but much smarter,,lol

I dunno

I won't listen to either one

I respect that. I just find alot more hogwash and personal attacks in what Rush says and alot more logic in what Moore says, I feel he gives me the information and allows my own conclusion(as opposed to the outright personal attacks).

LOL...anyone who believes that the US forces are in Afghanistan (And Pakistan) to fight "terrorists" needs to do a reality check. What the US forces now fighting are rebellious groups of Afghans, who oppose the occupation. They got zero to do with "Al-quaida" or any organization other than their own self-declared liberating forces.

The costs are high....it's a proxy war actually, USA is to loose influential and strategic position in the Middle East, related to oil pipelines.

When the Afghan campaign falls, so will the Iraq follow soon, none of them want to be controlled by from a distant power from another continent.

Michael Moore is either playing the dumb with his letter or he is really dumb and doesn't understand the stakes and just how deep is the rabbit hole.

I'd have to disagree there, though I think that much of Rush's knowledge comes from years in the thick of it. I don't support either, but somtimes, Rush makes some sense. I've had no such luch with MM. Even a broken clock is right every now and then.

I don't believe we should be over there at all. I do agree that if we were going to rightly avenge 9/11 Afghan and Saudi were closer to the correct targets.

To continue the war on terrorism is a farce. We cannot fight terrorism and only target one type of people since terrorism is a universal, every face is behind it even us.

I was hoping that Obama would be able to stop the wars but I see that he is not capable of it. Shows weakness to me and I am disappointed.

When will China get involved? I see, by the map, they have an oil interest there also.

we agree,, about the clock. you compare MM to that clock and I compare Rush.

Maybe, with no racism or hatred spewing out of his mouth, that does make him more worthy of listening to.

No hatred!?! Have you listened to him?

Yup, no hatred there.

Both of them spread the same hatred for the opposite side. Limbaugh, for liberals in general; Moore spreads the same hate for the wealthy and those that truely want less restricted capitalism.

The only difference is that Rush sticks with his protests while Moore is one of the biggest hypocrites in existence.

wait, so I guess you're right. In order for Moore to be spreading hate, he would have to actually practice what he preaches. Nevermind then. I guess if you're a lying fake that taking advantage of people's emotions for personal gain, you really aren't spreading hate if your primary goal is personal gain.