CHESSNOID

This was a good Larry King interview of Michael Moore.   Michael Moore and other Obamabots now realize and regret that their votes were not for a leader of change, but of another politician of broken promises.  I think Michael Moore is not just disappointed but dumbfounded by Obama’s decisions of supporting a useless and wasteful war.

One good point Moore makes is there were no Afghanistans of the 19 hijackers in 9/11, and that 15 of them were from Saudi Arabia.

Michael Moore Taks on Obama’s Afghanistan Escalation on Larry King Live, December 2, 2009

Transcript:

KING: Midnight in the east, nine o’clock in the west. The special live edition of ‘Larry King Live,’ following this historic West Point address by the President. We go first to Tokyo, where Michael Moore is standing by. The Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, his latest film is ‘Capitalism, a Love Story.’ Prior to tonight’s speech, he posted an open letter to President Obama on the website. The President didn’t listen to you, Michael. You wanted to withdraw. He did not take your advice. What do you think the result will be?

MOORE: I feel very bad for him. I feel even worse for our troops, and I feel a real sadness for the parents of those soldiers of ours, over the next 18 months who will not come back home. And I think many will ask, for what reason did they die? Not to stop al Qaeda, Larry, because there is no Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Our own CIA says there’s less than 100 al Qaeda in Afghanistan. What are we doing in Afghanistan? This is absolutely insane. When President Obama tonight says that we were attacked from Afghanistan, I don’t think so. I think that 15 of the 19 hijackers, terrorists, killers of 9/11- they were from Saudi Arabia. In fact, there wasn’t one Afghanistan citizen amongst them. The only thing Afghanistan had to do with it, they had some monkey bars in the desert that these guys trained on- I don’t know. I’ve seen the video. But for that? I mean, it’s absolutely insane, Larry.

We have been in this war for twice as long now as the U.S. was in World War II- twice as long as World War II. We defeated Hitler and Tojo and Mussolini in half the time it’s taken us to find Usama bin Laden. Now, if he had come on tonight and said we were going in there to- you know, with special forces to try and capture the killers, that’s a good idea. That’s not what he’s talking about. He’s talking about now, we’re going to have 100,000 troops there to find these killers who aren’t even there- absolutely insane.

KING: He didn’t make any kind of case to your satisfaction of the dangers, the differences between Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan? He was opposed to Vietnam, he was opposed to Iraq. But he pointed out the dangers in Afghanistan and what could happen if we do leave. He didn’t make any effect on you with that?

MOORE: None whatsoever, absolutely not- in fact, this is going to be his Vietnam if he doesn’t change his mind here. This isn’t going to work. I mean, Larry, just think of the logic of what we heard him say. He said that we’re going to send more troops over there so we can withdraw in 18 months. I mean, seriously, let me just say that again. We’re going to increase the troops so we can decrease the troops.

KING: But, of course, the increase in the troops will accomplish what the increase did during the surge in Iraq. It will temper the situation. So by bringing in more troops, they train- they’re able to more quickly train the Afghanis to run their own country. That makes some logic, doesn’t it?

MOORE: The situation, the surge in Iraq- the situation was tempered in Iraq because we were able to buy off enough of the people who were killing us. Now, if we do that in Afghanistan, if we can provide more money to the poppy growers and the people who are running the heroin trade out of Afghanistan- one of those people. according to The New York Times and our own CIA, happens to possibly be the brother of the president of Afghanistan- if we’re able to outbid the heroin guys, yeah, maybe we can have some impact. But for him to say that- I mean, I can understand why Republicans and some of the people on the right are like, what are you doing setting a deadline? It’s like crazy. If they’re truly the enemy, you don’t say- okay, we’re going to fight you until two o’clock on July 2, 2011. I mean, it’s like, if they’re the enemy, you fight them until they’re done, until you win and they lose and that’s not what he said. He just provided, I think, more fodder for his opponents by giving it a deadline.

KING: Right, but is it-

MOORE: If somebody is trying to kill you, if that’s the case, that people in Afghanistan are trying to kill us, then how can you set a deadline? The deadline is maybe a week from now, or maybe it’s ten years from now, but it’s- we’re going to stop you from killing us.

KING: Isn’t it by setting a deadline you’re also telling the Afghans- the good Afghans, get your house in order, you be ready. We’ll take so much of this and then we’re going. Wouldn’t that then force them, the good guys, to become better?

MOORE: No.

KING: No?

MOORE: No. That didn’t work in Vietnam. It’s not going to work in Iraq. It was interesting to hear him essentially praise the Bush policy in Iraq and how it succeeded. I mean, it was really bizarre to hear him say some of these things. And I have to tell you, Larry, I hate to be even saying these things because I honestly think Barack Obama is a good and decent man. He has a good heart. I believe he’s a man of peace. I was thrilled that he won the [Nobel] Peace Prize. So to see him make this mistake- I don’t think there’s any kind of evil or dark place in his heart that- where this is coming from. I just think that he’s listened to the generals. He’s taken bad advice, and- you know, he’s human. We all make mistakes. Somebody told Time Warner to buy AOL. I mean, you know? He’s listening to the same kind of people that always seem to give the wrong advice to people in charge.

Michael Moore did write a letter and I copied it below for you:

November 30th, 2009 3:44 AM
An Open Letter to President Obama from Michael Moore

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). 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 + 41 22 789 1662. I’m sure 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
MMFlint@aol.com
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.