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.
#25 True, he said it needed to be “finished” but a crafty politician faced with a no-win situation might do well to just declare victory and bring the troops home. Seriously, the definition of “finished” can be amorphous. If he thinks getting the troops out now is the right thing, he can define “finished” to be whatever he wants and declare the job done.
Dear mr. president.
I would like to suggest something about the past and future.
Our parents, used to scrimp and save to Have something to PASS onto their kids. Homes, land, washer dryer, and so forth. With each generation, we could get a little more.
Now a bit of history.
After WWII, when our military came back, and they found that women were working. the smart ones decided to let it happen.
A single income family lives on the hard side, and a little more money was a good thing and gave our parents TIME. they could afford a House, land, a dryer, and TOYS for the kids. The older kids kept watch over the kids, and things worked pretty well.
In about the Middle 90’s, something happened. Prices started going up, and up, and up, and UP.
Now, it takes 2 working members of a family to make ends meet, pay bill, rent, insurance, and God forbid someone gets sick or dies and All of that falls onto the living person.
Toys? What toy is under $20, what bag of groceries can you buy under $50.
What happened during this time? Min wage didnt change, average salaries didnt change?
TOP wages changed and Profits changed.
I wish to suggest a small test, to be given to all those running this country to be given personally and only by them, and NOT their flunkies.
A test on the price of goods at the nearest grocery store. Allow them to be off by $1-2.
This was done in Oregon, about 15-20 years ago. 1/10 of the legislators KNEW the prices.
I would publish the results, and see what their HOME states think of our representatives.
Good luck sir,
PS. I hope you havnt been held up as the previous presidents have. At gun point and controlled by those with MONEY and power.
That’s the rub with Moore. He’s often right but no one likes a patronising git who perpetuates the ‘self hating liberal’ meme.
#12, I am just trying to show sympathy for the poor guy. You have to admit, he hasn’t been able to scream as loudly in the last couple of months. Who knows this may work out for him. If he has less money maybe he will skip a few meals, it might just save his life.
If Moore does not like the war, then perhaps he should enlist, go over there, and finish the job. We all have to work within the system, right?
#31 ECA
“Now, it takes 2 working members of a family to make ends meet, pay bill, rent, insurance,….”
pay for everyone in the family to have a cellphone, cable/satellite TV, second or third new car, new designer clothes, multiple gaming systems, multiple TVs, their own house(s), etc.
There is now way in hell you can compare today’s live style to the 50’s or even the 70’s. Back then kids lived with hand me downs and parents would spend decades getting their house furnished the way they want it. Now a days everyone wants everything new and now.
How many phones do houses have now? How many TVs.
Profits for most companies has really gone up Percentage wise. Some CEO’s salaries is sinful but not all.
“After WWII, when our military came back, and they found that women were working.”
Most of them also moved into Plywood houses with no insulation. Women in the workforce also increased the worker pool which depressed wages.
Stay, and American lives will be lost for nothing, fighting against a country of total religious insanity, and an uncertain and ever-changing number of suicidal sociopaths. If American troops were willing to to commit suicide attacks and kill innocent people in the process, you might have a chance, but otherwise, no amount of troops can win that war.
America should never have gone to Afghanistan in the first place. But I suppose the Christian sickness must challenge the Islamic sickness when threatened.
Ah, never mind… it’s just too complicated for an easy solution. The world if f*cked by trigger happy religious zealots, perpetually retarded by religious moderates, and poisoned by power and greed. Time for my meds…
Unpossible for him to be a “War President”. That’s why he bought the Nobel Peace Prize.
The real shame is the utter lack of understanding among those in the West of what Salafi Jihadism is, what it means to modernity, globalization, and Western/modern values (blogs.law.harvard.edu/mesh/2008/02/defining-and-confronting-the-salafi-jihad).
The problem Obama has is that he rode this brainwash (completely abetted by our idiots in media) into office fully understanding the true reality, and now that he has to act like an adult, those that engaged in the brainwash are dumbfounded. It’s simply a result of a non-understanding of the threat, even after Ft. Hood and three days after another terror attack in Russia (features.csmonitor.com/globalnews/2009/11/30/russia-train-bombing-sign-of-new-terror-tactics).
Those that are serious understand it to be a worldwide movement and those that are engaged in brainwash/cognitive dissonance still think it’s a regional law enforcement issue, or some kind of a corporate conspiracy. It’s just incredible to me. If you want to understand you can start here:youtube.com/watch?v=gMLJJEDDDGc
PS #28 Sheehan is still protesting the war(s) cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/05/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5365082.shtml it’s just she doesn’t get front page headlines as long as our idiot media is carrying water for “the one”. They “cover” it so they have plausible deniability, but they don’t really cover it. Not at least how they would cover it were someone they happened to dislike was in office.
Media is such a sham, they don’t educate, they don’t inform, they just push a grade school quasi-conspiracy understanding of the world and sell advertising to the people stupid enough to sit through the 2min of commercials between the slop.
I wouldn’t be surprised one nano if Obama pulls the rug out from everyone Tuesday and declares he’s pulling everyone out.
@The War Is Over
I would be. He is totally in the tank for the people that actually run this country and own the government.
The one war we should be fighting, people want to get out of because of 8 years of mismanagement.
Or… Afganistan, Terrorist Training Camps..WELCOME BACK!!!! We’ve missed you!
36,
Umm, you must be making more then $10 per hour. COOL for you.
If you consider that YOU CANT make it under $18 per hour(2 people 8hours per day, $9 per hour)..
I can show you the numbers, ONLY the basics. no extra cellphones, or services..
And watch your kids threaten to KILL you in your sleep.
NEW and now?? show me a pair of pants that will survive 1 year..LIKE back in the 70’s.
I will ask a question..WHERE is all the cotton/wool going?? that WE USED to wear?
I also have a 64 Dodge Van and a 86 Olds..NOT NEW.
Phones..If they(kids) cant pay for it, DONT GIVE THEM ONE.
“Most of them also moved into Plywood houses with no insulation. Women in the workforce also increased the worker pool which depressed wages.”
yes it DID..except a MANS JOB, was a MANS JOB. during the 60’s and into the 70’s is when things really changed..
#8 I wish more people were aware of the Poppy Harvest as the ONLY reason we are in Afghanistan. We sure as hell aren’t there to capture Bin Laden, that will never happen. Wherever you find huge amounts of heroin you will find our CIA directing traffic.
MODERATOR – #13 is out of line, but Thank You very much for not censoring him. I would rather see that stuff than endure censorship which only guarantees my ignorance.
Confession: I voted for Obama and believed he would try to end these bullshit wars. Now I know he is the new War President and I can never vote for him again. I’m afraid Obama is just another lying politician as I suspected and hoped wasn’t true.
I guess our grandchildren will never have peace and probably won’t know what the word means. George Bush told us the war in Iraq would last “at least 40 years” and nobody believed him. Now we are doubly mired in crap we can’t get out of – lucky us. Thanks Mr. President now, please, go take a nap.
I’m so old I remember the Constitution saying ONLY Congress can declare war. Shouldn’t we do something about that????
Some people like to claim that Republicans and Democrats are all the same.
But here is a difference:
The Republicans mindlessly supported everything Bush did and bullied and demagogued to get their way.
MANY of us Democrats think for ourselves and will oppose Obama on this.
That’s a huge difference that the “they’re all the same” crowd is too politically tone-deaf to notice.
#45. The problem is that Obama is controlled by the same people who controlled Bush. It really doesn’t matter what Obama wants…that is what you should take away from this.
It should be obvious why MM makes documentaries instead of policy. There is one significant difference between our goals in Afghanistan and those of the British and Soviets: our goal isn’t to conquer and occupy Afghanistan. Our goal is to have Afghanistan stand on its own and root out terrorists on its own so we can leave.
The problem for Obama is the vast majority of liberals have short attention spans. If it cannot be done in a month, then they think it’s a quagmire. Cleaning up Afghanistan will probably take five to ten years which means the President has to either put all his chips in or pull all of them out. The worst decision is for him to 1/2 ass the troop increase.
The tough, but admittedly brave decision (and wrong IMO) would be to pull out of Afghanistan. It would be inline with the extreme end of his constituents even if it clearly contradicts his campaign promises.
BTW, how’s that job of building consensus and better international cooperation to help in places like Afghanistan going? So much for the merits of the world “liking” us better.
Lyndon Baines Obama. LBJ was a deft and wily politician with a lot of insight into how to shake a positive result from his adversaries, and still he went down at the hands of the military industrial complex. Obama’s got no real experience outside of smiling his way through the mud of Chicago corruption. He’s been in over his head from the start. This is just one more nail in the coffin of his single-term presidency.
I can’t see why this comes as a surprise.
Then Sen. Obama was making the most bellicose remarks of the Democrat candidates, in my opinion, about Afghanistan back in the Fall of 2007.
I also believe he said 1) that he didn’t know how he would have voted for the Iraq invasion authorization given what was known at the time. He was in the Illinois state senate at the time of the vote.
2) When he was running for the U.S. Senate in 2004, there were comments taken down from his web site that were critical of the war as his campaign was going into its final weeks.
Also, many Obama backers, including Michael Moore, were very critical of Hillary Clinton for her vote on the matter. Fine, however, when voting from the Senate on this matter everything is minor league.
#45 Gregg Allen
“The Republicans mindlessly supported everything Bush did and bullied and demagogued to get their way.”
No we didn’t why do you think Republicans lost in 2006 and 2008. They were spending too much. We might have supported him on the war but alot of domestic issue we didn’t.
#43 ECA Yep I make more than $10/hr. My jeans are also more than 3 years old. My truck is a 1995 and my car is a 1999. This is off the topic of the main post here though.
The World and US is also a different place than the 50s or 70s. One the US population has double since the 50s. So land value has gone up in some places way to fast. (My dad’s friend left California during the houseing boom and when his company sent back a few years latter. They had to give him a housing allowance so he could afford to live there) Construction Codes made building more expensive to build on top of normal inflation. (May make them safe and all that but it still cost more to do.) EPA laws made some business move operations outside of the US. Business also found cheaper labor outside the US. The US has more competition now than just Europe like ASIA. From the 50s to the 70s we were a rapid growing country.
Oh you forget the biggest problem the American people like by stuff cheap. Why do you think we have Walmart and the like. Wait you want how much for those pair of jeans but I can get it for $5 to $10 cheaper at Sam’s Club. I don’t care that you’re paying that guy with toilet water. Hell I’m only making $9.50/hr. What you want $15/hr to care for my lawn but Jose here will do the whole day for $5 and not bitch about hot it is. Guess who’s doing the lawn.
#33 I do believe you’ve hit the nail on the head.
There is one significant difference between our goals in Afghanistan and those of the British and Soviets: our goal isn’t to conquer and occupy Afghanistan. Our goal is to have Afghanistan stand on its own and root out terrorists on its own so we can leave.
I wouldn’t be so sure about that. After all the USA still has a military presence in both Germany and Japan as well as Korea. We’ve got military based in something like 70 countries.
#50,
THINK ABOUT IT THIS WAY..
We as individuals used to be able to GIVE to those we wished. Charitable deductions and so forth to help our own areas.
now days the companies are TAKING our money and doing the GIVING..that is the amount of profit they are making.
THEY are getting the deductions and so forth.
Dont get me into SPORTS events SPONSORED, by corps..OUR money pays for it, THEn they CHARGE to get into watch it, and its a TOTAL deduction..they have to show the seats as $$$$ and sold them as $$$ and made a LOSS.
#13 You don’t know why we are in Afghanistan?
Watch the video. You don’t need to understand the words and see if this makes it past your Alzheimers: http://metacafe.com/watch/182981/twin_towers_colapsing/
or just do a Google search for video twin towers falling down.
#52
There is a world of difference between having a presence in a country and attempting to occupy the country. The Soviets wanted to conquer and occupy Afghanistan; the US does not.
I would like to see a big surprise to either the up or down of the cw estimate of 30-35k new troops.
Obama seems to be a terrible politician. He’s going to get the blame if it ends up not working(didn’t give the generals what they wanted) and he’s going to catch hell from his left flank(because we’re not leaving). Nobody ends up leaving happy.
This is purely a domestic political problem. Afghanistan has ZERO chance of not resembling a failed state when we finally do pack up and go home.
I think the term “Decent Interval”, a book from the Vietnam era, pretty much sums it up.
Anyone who thinks the chance of Afghanistan starting a sustained path of development is greater than ZERO please explain.
Just heard that Bush – er, Barack, is sending 30,000 more troops into war.
I guess he didn’t get Michaels memo!
Please withdraw from Afghanistan!
What exactly do we want over there and why do we care? How are we improving their lives?
And it isn’t strategically important for anything.
Let the UN or someone else police that place, we don’t need to dump $$$ in there.
#50, Jetfire,
#45 Gregg Allen
“The Republicans mindlessly supported everything Bush did and bullied and demagogued to get their way.”
No we didn’t why do you think Republicans lost in 2006 and 2008.
The Republicans lost so many seats and Presidency mostly because they tired of right wing lies and cons. Do you really think Bush would have won a second term if it had come out earlier that the Bush Administration was tapping American phone calls indiscriminately?
I don’t get a national security briefing every morning with the latest intel. I do believe if you allow Al Qaeda regroup, they’ll be back. We have to keep these bastards on the run and disorganized. That takes boots on the ground. Anyone else has a better idea please come forward. Please remember Pakistan has a nuclear arsenal if the Taliban seizes control.