[PAA-Discuss] Fwd: An Open Letter to President Obama from Michael Moore

Mon Nov 30 17:43:54 EST 2009

If you have not already contacted the White House to tell Obama to 
bring the troops home from Afghanistan, rather than send more to die 
and kill and increase hatred of the US there, do it TODAY.

See Michael Moore's latest note about this subject below -- I think 
he's exactly right, and perhaps what he says might have a little 
impact on Obama.

Go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact to send an e-mail -- it's 
quick and easy.  For the subject menu, select "I have a policy 
statement" and then in the next menu option, select "Afghanistan".

If nothing else, tell Obama to bring the troops home now, and that we 
need money and support for health care, education, alternative energy 
and conservation, and the environment, NOT more dollars and lives for 
killiing and destruction.

Do it now.  Tomorrow will be too late.

Bill

>From: "Michael Moore" <maillist at michaelmoore.com>
>Subject: An Open Letter to President Obama from Michael Moore
>Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 03:30:48 -0500
>Reply-To: maillist at michaelmoore.com
>
>An Open Letter to President Obama from Michael Moore
>
>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 
><http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28intel.html>his 
>brother in the heroin trade raising poppies). Afghanistan's nickname 
>is 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 
><http://www.greencrossinternational.net/contact-us>+ 41 22 789 1662. 
>I'm sure 
><http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latest-news/gorbachev-obama-prepare-ground-withdrawal-afghanistan>he 
>could give you an earful about the historic blunder you're about to 
>commit.
>
>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
><mailto:mmflint at aol.com>MMFlint at aol.com
><http://www.michaelmoore.com/>MichaelMoore.com
>
>P.S. There's still time to have your voice heard. Call the White 
>House at 202-456-1111 or <http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact>email 
>the President.
>
><http://www.michaelmoore.com/visitor/register>Join Mike's Mailing 
>List | <http://www.facebook.com/mmflint>Join Mike's Facebook Group | 
><http://twitter.com/mmflint>Follow Mike on Twitter | 
><http://www.myspace.com/mmflint>Become Mike's MySpace Friend
>
>

-- 
Bill Crosier
paa at crosierbiomed.com      713-641-4941
Progressive Action Alliance   http://progressiveactionalliance.org/
KPFT - Radio for Peace - 90.1 FM Houston   http://kpft.org
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