Michael Moore writes to Bush

[Neo]

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Michael Moore writes to Bush

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Marking the longest presence ever of the United States in a foreign war, iconoclastic moviemaker Michael Moore in an open letter to President George Bush has pointed out that after 1,347 days, not even the road from the airport to Baghdad city is safe.

Writes Moore in his characteristic style, “We were able to defeat all of Nazi Germany, Mussolini, and the entire Japanese empire in less time than it’s taken the world’s only superpower to secure the road from the airport to downtown Baghdad. Is this utter failure the fault of our troops? Hardly. That’s because no amount of troops or choppers or democracy shot out of the barrel of a gun is ever going to ‘win’ the war in Iraq. It is a lost war, lost because it never had a right to be won, lost because it was started by men who have never been to war, men who hide behind others sent to fight and die.”

According to Moore, “There are many ways to liberate a country. Usually the residents of that country rise up and liberate themselves. That’s how we did it. You can also do it through non-violent, mass civil disobedience. That’s how India did it. You can get the world to boycott a regime until they are so ostracised they capitulate. That’s how South Africa did it.”

He asks where all the suicide bombers were when Saddam Hussein was oppressing them or the insurgents planting bombs along the roadside. The Iraqi despot was cruel “but not cruel enough for thousands to risk their necks”. He adds, “When tens of thousands aren’t willing to shed their own blood to remove a dictator, that should be the first clue that they aren’t going to be willing participants when you decide you’re going to do the liberating for them.”

Moore argues that the only way a war of liberation has a chance of succeeding is if the oppressed people being liberated have their own citizens behind them. He quotes a Johns Hopkins University estimate to highlight the fact that 655,000 Iraqis have died since the invasion. He adds, “There is only one solution and it is this: Leave.” He recalls that the Soviet Union got out of Afghanistan in 36 weeks as it realised the mistake it had made. He states that the responsibility to end this war now falls upon the Democrats.

Moore urges that the troops should be brought home “now, not in six months from now”. America should apologise to its soldiers and make amends. The mentally and physically maimed must get the best care and significant financial compensation. The families of the deceased deserve the biggest apology and they must be taken care of for the rest of their lives. America must atone for the atrocity it has perpetuated on the people of Iraq. When the civil war is over, the US will have to help rebuild Iraq.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\11\28\story_28-11-2006_pg7_28

 

[KashifAsrar]

Oops !
Wrong timing Mr. Moore. Dubiya is on a 'Help-US-Stay' mission, to Middle east and Europe. Try when he is campaigning!
Kashif

 

[KashifAsrar]

Bush: 'Not Going To Pull Our Troops'
Under Increased Pressure, Bush Says Only Victory Will Get U.S. Out Of Iraq
CBS News Interactive: Battle For Iraq
(CBS News) TALLINN, Estonia Under intense pressure to change course, President Bush on Tuesday rejected suggestions Iraq has fallen into civil war and vowed not to pull U.S. troops out "until the mission is complete."

At the opening of a NATO summit, Mr. Bush also urged allies to increase their forces in Afghanistan to confront a strengthening Taliban insurgency.

On the eve of his visit to Jordan for meetings with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Mr. Bush portrayed the battles in both Afghanistan and Iraq as central fronts in a war "against the extremists who desire safe havens and are willing to kill innocents anywhere to achieve their objectives."

The stakes in Iraq are huge for President Bush. His war policies were repudiated in U.S. midterm elections that handed control of Congress to Democrats. A bipartisan blue-ribbon panel is about to issue a report proposing changes in the administration's approach in Iraq. And al-Maliki's government itself sometimes seems to be at cross purposes with Washington.

Mr. Bush set the stage for the Jordan talks with a speech at the NATO summit here and at an earlier news conference in neighboring Estonia. The president said he was flexible and eager (Really !!) to hear al-Maliki's ideas on how to ease the violence.

"There's one thing I'm not going to do, I'm not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete," President Bush declared in his speech. There are about 140,000 U.S. forces in Iraq.

Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the 160,000-strong multinational force in Iraq for one year, acting quickly ahead of a key meeting between U.S. and Iraqi leaders aimed at halting escalating violence in the country and paving the way for a reduction of American troops.

The council responded to a request from al-Maliki, who said a top government priority is to assume full responsibility for security and stability throughout the country but that it needs more time.

Earlier, speaking with reporters in Tallinn during a joint news conference with Estonia's president, Mr. Bush would not debate whether Iraq had fallen into civil war and blamed the increasing bloodshed on a pattern of sectarian violence that he said was set in motion last winter by al Qaeda followers.

"I'm going to bring this subject up, of course, with Prime Minister Maliki," Mr. Bush said. "My questions to him will be: What do you need to do to succeed? What is your strategy in dealing with the sectarian violence?"

But senior administration officials say that when Mr. Bush sits down with al-Maliki tomorrow, it is al-Maliki who might push for troop withdrawals, so Iraqis can take greater control of their own security, CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports.

The president said he realized that "no question it's dangerous there, and violent. And the Maliki government is going to have to deal with that violence, and we want to help them do so."

Mr. Bush has been coming under increasing pressure, both overseas and at home, to reach out more to other countries.

Such a recommendation may be among those issued by the Iraq Study Group headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton. The group is expected to finish its work next month, and some are hoping for it by early next week. The Bush administration rejected what is expected to be a key recommendation -- engaging Iran and Syria for help calming Iraq, Axelrod reports.

CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that sources close to the Iraq Study Group predicted that its final report will not call for a timetable for a withdrawal of troops, which would certainly be rejected by the administration.

Still unresolved is the question of what, if any, consequenses there would be if the Iraqi government failed to meet a possible timeline to assume more responsibility for its own security, Martin reports.

President Bush has resisted such talks, and he renewed a warning on Tuesday to both Iran and Syria not to meddle in Iraq. Still, al-Maliki's government itself has made overtures to both countries.

"As far as Iraq goes, the Iraqi government is a sovereign government capable of handling its own foreign policies and is in the process of doing so," Mr. Bush said in Tallinn.

Later, the president's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said that Bush and al-Maliki have "a relationship of candor."

"A lot of discussion has been about (President Bush) pushing Maliki. Maliki has done a lot of pushing himself," Hadley said. "There has been a coordinated effort between the Iraqi government and allied forces to get greater control. ... It has not produced satisfactory progress in a satisfactory timeframe."

Meanwhile, in Washington, House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi said Mr. Bush must work with Democrats on stopping the violence in Iraq.

"We want to work in a bipartisan way to settle this," Pelosi said. "If the president persists on the course that he is on, that will be more difficult."

In Riga, President Bush pressed many of the 26 NATO allies to do more to marshal resources and troops in Afghanistan, particularly in the volatile south.

Mr. Bush said the Afghanistan mission -- which has mobilized over 32,000 troops is NATO's top operation and defeating Taliban forces "will require the full commitment of our alliance."

"The commanders on the ground must have the resources and flexibility they need to do their jobs," he said.

He met individually with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and joined other leaders in attending a working dinner.

Hadley, Mr. Bush's national security adviser, said that Bush brought up a need for "additional defense capabilities and additional defense spending" in the meeting with the secretary-general and also intended to discuss it at the dinner.

In both Baltic countries, President Bush on Tuesday saluted their persistence in eventually prevailing over Soviet occupiers, and he said it was a good example for both Afghanistan and Iraq.


(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)


http://cbs4denver.com/national/topstories_story_332063330.html

 

[solid snake]

I am a liberal democrat but I think that Moore is an idiot. His rants don't help anyone, and his comparison of the Iraq war and WWII is very inaccurate. I am all for ending the war, but he gets on my nerves.

 

[KashifAsrar]

Democrats or Republican, they have same policy towards Middle east. What is difference?
Kashif

 

[Contrarian]

Increased US presence in the middle east and S.Asian region is the key to stopping Chinese influence in the region. India alone cannot do it. It needs another ally, be it Russia or US or Japan.

Presence of any of these countries in this area is welcome because it furthers India's strategic goal.

 

[joey]

wthell r u takin bout?
US is already in islands on japan, the whole of UAE and so on.
they are already here, they need not to fix their positions.

 

[Neo]

I am a liberal democrat but I think that Moore is an idiot. His rants don't help anyone, and his comparison of the Iraq war and WWII is very inaccurate. I am all for ending the war, but he gets on my nerves.

If I were in USA I would be a liberal democrat aswell (sorry TopHatter ).
Bush and Rumsfeld get on my nerve.

 

[Spring Onion]

I am a liberal democrat but I think that Moore is an idiot. His rants don't help anyone, and his comparison of the Iraq war and WWII is very inaccurate. I am all for ending the war, but he gets on my nerves.

i dont think so hez idiot. Moor is good enough to be taken seriously. In the past also he used to analyse US policies in crtical manner and i still remmber about 2 years back i had attempted a question it was on book review when i was in University doing my degree in Mass Communication and Journalism. I had given review on his book in exam and the book was also crtical analysis of US politics arround ther world and would u believe i got the highest marks in that paper .