Obama should have supported a withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan

The Stop the War Coalition, a coalition of groups in the UK, re-prints below Michael Moore's essay on what Obama should have said - but didn't - about US policy in Afghanistan. As usual, Moore makes many reasonable points here in why we should withdraw our troops from the country. Al Qaeda is not a threat, the US war/occupation is ineffective and a waste of taxpayers' money, the Karzai government is corrupt and many in his administration and government are linked to the production and distribution of "illegal" drugs, and we could better keep the money spent on this war at home to address the needs of Americans.

I would add that the Afghan war/occupation is related to the growing US needs for oil and Afghanistan is a part of the world in which there are large oil reserves, near the Casbian Sea and not too far from the Middle East. There is concern in the higher circles of the US about oil and also about pipelines, one feasible route for which would be through Afghanistan. Also, there are at least four other interests that make it difficult for US leaders to pull out of the country. One, the military establishment is concerned about some sort of success in Afghanistan to justify its huge budget. Second, there are hundreds of thousands of workers in the US who are employed by US weapons and supply producers. We have not yet created good alternative jobs for them. Third, our military and government leaders want to think we can be the big shot in the international community and that it is our destiny to bring "democracy" to all countries we define is relevant to this misbegotten goal. (See William Pfaff,'s book, The Irony of Manifest Destiny.) And fourth, we are concerned about the growing competition from China in Central Asia and the Middle East.

Obama must, then, announce a massive program for greening the economy, ala the Apollo Alliance and even greater, partly financed by the savings from US withdrawal from Afghanistan, from a tax on the wealthy, from the withdrawal of subsidies to the fossil fuel industries, from a tax on transactions on Wall Street....The withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan could be a catalyst for transforming our economy and setting an example to the rest of the world. It would be a great beginning.

Senseless war begins 10th year: Time to Go says President Obama

"The people responsible for 9/11 are no longer in Afghanistan. So why are we? It is time for me to bring our troops home -- right now. Not one more American needs to die, says President Obama (as reported to Michael Moore).

By Michael Mooremichaelmoore.com07 October 2010

My fellow Americans...

(Michael Moore's case for time to go from Afghanistan)

Nine years ago today we invaded the nation of Afghanistan. I'd just turned 40. I had a Discman and an Oldsmobile and had gotten really into LiveJournal. That was a long time ago. It was so long ago, does anybody remember why we're even there? I think everyone wanted to capture Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice. But he got away sometime in the first month or so. He left. We stayed. Looking back now, that makes no sense.

Needing to find a new reason for the mission, we decided to overthrow the religious extremists who were running Afghanistan. Which we did. Sorta. Unlike Osama, they never left. Why not? Well, they were Afghans, it was their country.

And, strangely enough, a lot of other Afghans supported them. To this day, the Taliban only have 25,000 armed fighters. Do you really think an army that tiny could control and suppress a nation of 28 million against their will? What's wrong with this picture? WTF is really going on here?

The truth is, I can't get an answer. My generals can't quite tell me what our mission is. If we went in there to rout out al-Qaeda, well, they're gone too. The CIA tells me there are under 100 of them left in the whole country!

My generals have also admitted the following to me:

1. There is no way we can defeat the Taliban. They enjoy too much popular support in the rural areas, the majority of the country.

2. Even though we've been there nine years, the truth is the Taliban, not us, not the Afghan government, control the country. After nine years, we've only completely run the Taliban out of 3% of Afghanistan.

3%!! (Just for reference, it took us only ELEVEN MONTHS after D-Day to entirely defeat the Nazis across all of Europe.)

3. Our troops and their commanders are still trying to learn the language, the culture, the customs of Afghanistan. The fact is, our troops are simply not trusted by the average people (especially after they've killed numerous civilians, either through recklessness or for sport).

4. The Afghan government we installed is corrupt beyond belief. The public does not trust them. President Karzai is on anti-depressants and our advisors tell us he is erratic and loopy on many days. His brother has a friendly relationship with the Taliban and is believed to be a major poppy (heroin) dealer. Heroin poppies are the #1 contributor to the Afghan economy.

The war in Afghanistan is a mess. The insurgency grows -- and why wouldn't it: foreign troops have invaded and occupied their country! The people responsible for 9/11 are no longer there. So why are we? Why are we offering up the lives of our sons and daughters every single day -- for no reason anyone can define.

In fact, the only reason I can see is that this war is putting billions of profits into the pockets of defense contractors. Is that a reason to stay, so Halliburton can post a larger profit this quarter?
It is time for me to bring our troops home -- right now. Not one more American needs to die. Their deaths do not make us safer and they do not bring democracy to Afghanistan.

It is not our mission to defeat the Taliban. That is the job of the Afghan people -- if that is what they choose to do. There are many groups and leaders of countries in this world who are despicable. We are not going to invade 30 countries and remove their regimes. That is not our job.

I am not going to stay in Afghanistan just because we're already there and we haven't "won" yet. There is nothing to win. No one from Genghis Khan to Leonid Brezhnev has been able to win there. So the troops are coming home.

I refuse to participate in scaring the American people with a phony "War on Terror." Are there terrorists? Yes. Will they strike again? Sadly, yes. But these terrorist acts are few and far between and should not dictate how we live our daily lives or make us ignore our constitutional rights. They should never distract us from what our real priorities are in making our country safe and secure: Everyone with a good job, families able to own a home and send their kids to college, universal health care that's coordinated by your elected representative government -- not by greedy, profit-hungry insurance companies. THAT would be true homeland security.

And what about Osama bin Laden? Nine years and we can't find a 6'5" Arab man who apparently is on dialysis? Even after offering $25 million to anyone who will tell us where he is? You don't think someone would have taken us up on that by now?

Here's what I know: Osama bin Laden is a multi-millionaire -- and if there's one thing I've learned about the rich is that they don't live in caves for 9 years. Bin Laden is either dead or hiding out in a place where his money protects him. Or maybe he just went home.

Just like we should do. Now. My condolences to the families of all who died in this war. Most of them signed up after 9/11 and wanted to do their duty because we were attacked. But we were not attacked by a country. We were attacked by a few religious extremists. And you don't defeat a few thugs by shipping halfway around the world thousands of armored vehicles and hundreds of thousands of soldiers. That is just sheer idiocy.

And it ends tonight.

(End of speech, as transcribed by Michael Moore)