November 25, 2006 at 23:38:59

Cut and Run, the Only Brave Thing to Do

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Cut and Run, the Only Brave Thing to Do

Sunday, November 26th, 2006

Friends,

Tomorrow marks the day that we will have been in Iraq longer than we were in all
of World War II.

That's right. 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.

And we haven't even done THAT. After 1,347 days, in the same time it took us to
took us to sweep across North Africa, storm the beaches of Italy, conquer the
South Pacific, and liberate all of Western Europe, we cannot, after over 3 and
1/2 years, even take over a single highway and protect ourselves from a homemade
device of two tin cans placed in a pothole. No wonder the cab fare from the
airport into Baghdad is now running around $35,000 for the 25-minute ride. And
that doesn't even include a friggin' helmet.

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.

Let's listen to what the Iraqi people are saying, according to a recent poll
conducted by the University of Maryland:

** 71% of all Iraqis now want the U.S. out of Iraq.

** 61% of all Iraqis SUPPORT insurgent attacks on U.S. troops.

Yes, the vast majority of Iraqi citizens believe that our soldiers should be
killed and maimed! So what the hell are we still doing there? Talk about not
getting the hint.

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 nonviolent, mass civil disobedience. That's how India did it. You can
get the world to boycott a regime until they are so ostracized they capitulate.
That's how South Africa did it. Or you can just wait them out and, sooner or later, the king's legions
simply leave (sometimes just because they're too cold). That's how Canada did
it.

The one way that DOESN'T work is to invade a country and tell the people, "We
are here to liberate you!" -- when they have done NOTHING to liberate
themselves. Where were all the suicide bombers when Saddam was oppressing them?
Where were the insurgents planting bombs along the roadside as the evildoer
Saddam's convoy passed them by? I guess ol' Saddam was a cruel despot -- but not
cruel enough for thousands to risk their necks. "Oh no, Mike, they couldn't do
that! Saddam would have had them killed!" Really? You don't think King George
had any of the colonial insurgents killed? You don't think Patrick Henry or Tom
Paine were afraid? That didn't stop them. 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.

A country can HELP another people overthrow a tyrant (that's what the French did
for us in our revolution), but after you help them, you leave. Immediately. The
French didn't stay and tell us how to set up our government. They didn't say,
"we're not leaving because we want your natural resources." They left us to our
own devices and it took us six years before we had an election. And then we had
a bloody civil war. That's what happens, and history is full of these examples.
The French didn't say, "Oh, we better stay in America, otherwise they're going
to kill each other over that slavery issue!"

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 -- and a group of
Washingtons, Jeffersons, Franklins, Ghandis and Mandellas leading them. Where
are these beacons of liberty in Iraq? This is a joke and it's been a joke since
the beginning. Yes, the joke's been on us, but with 655,000 Iraqis now dead as a result of our invasion (source: Johns Hopkins University
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8080 ), I guess the
cruel joke is on them. At least they've been liberated, permanently.

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Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American film director, author, and social commentator. He is widely known for his outspoken, critical views on globalization, large corporations, gun violence, the Iraq War, and the George W. Bush (more...)

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