Moore pleads Obama to withdraw Afghan troops
Moore pleads Obama to withdraw Afghan troops
Tuesday, 01, Dec 2009 02:58
By Richard James.
Documentary-maker Michael Moore has pleaded with Barack Obama not to pledge thousands of extra troops to Afghanistan as expected later today.
In an open letter to the US president, Moore said any announcement of increased troop numbers would "destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you".
Mr Obama is widely expected to announce the deployment of over 30,000 further US troops to Afghanistan in his national address later.
The US president has come under severe pressure from his leading military commanders to send more troops to help in the fight against the Taliban insurgency, with General Stanley McChrystal demanding an extra 40,000 soldiers.
On the eve of Mr Obama's long-awaited announcement, Moore published his open letter urging the president to rethink, claiming it was not too late to change his mind.
Moore, who so ferociously attacked Mr Obama's predecessor George Bush, said the current president was in danger of losing the support of all those who backed his historic campaign to the White House.
"With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics," he said.
"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."
Moore warned Mr Obama he would become a "war president" if he announced a troop surge, suggesting America was on the brink of collapse.
"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 civilisation 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."
The documentary-maker said the decision to send more troops was profoundly wrong and would play into the hands of the president's enemies.
He added sombrely: "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."
In a last defiant call, Moore called for an end to the military campaign in Afghanistan which in his eyes was achieving nothing other than the continual needless death of US soldiers.
"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," he rallied.
On Monday Gordon Brown announced the deployment of another 500 British troops, taking the UK's total force in Afghanistan to over 10,000.