Article: Cut and Run, the Only Brave Thing to Do

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.

So I don't want to hear another word about sending more troops (wake up,
America, John McCain is bonkers), or "redeploying" them, or waiting four months
to begin the "phase-out." There is only one solution and it is this: Leave. Now.
Start tonight. Get out of there as fast as we can. As much as people of good
heart and conscience don't want to believe this, as much as it kills us to
accept defeat, there is nothing we can do to undo the damage we have done.
What's happened has happened. If you were to drive drunk down the road and you
killed a child, there would be nothing you could do to bring that child back to
life. If you invade and destroy a country, plunging it into a civil war, there
isn't much you can do 'til the smoke settles and blood is mopped up. Then maybe
you can atone for the atrocity you have committed and help the living come back to a better life.

The Soviet Union got out of Afghanistan in 36 weeks. They did so and suffered
hardly any losses as they left. They realized the mistake they had made and
removed their troops. A civil war ensued. The bad guys won. Later, we overthrew
the bad guys and everybody lived happily ever after. See! It all works out in
the end!

The responsibility to end this war now falls upon the Democrats. Congress
controls the purse strings and the Constitution says only Congress can declare
war. Mr. Reid and Ms. Pelosi now hold the power to put an end to this madness.
Failure to do so will bring the wrath of the voters. We aren't kidding around,
Democrats, and if you don't believe us, just go ahead and continue this war
another month. We will fight you harder than we did the Republicans. The opening
page of my website ( http://www.michaelmoore.com/ ) has a photo of Nancy Pelosi
and Harry Reid, each made up by a collage of photos of the American soldiers who
have died in Bush's War. But it is now about to become the Bush/Democratic Party
War unless swift action is taken.

This is what we demand:

1. Bring the troops home now. Not six months from now. NOW. Quit looking for a
way to win. We can't win. We've lost. Sometimes you lose. This is one of those
times. Be brave and admit it.

2. Apologize to our soldiers and make amends. Tell them we are sorry they were
used to fight a war that had NOTHING to do with our national security. We must
commit to taking care of them so that they suffer as little as possible. 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.

3. We must atone for the atrocity we have perpetuated on the people of Iraq.
There are few evils worse than waging a war based on a lie, invading another
country because you want what they have buried under the ground. Now many more
will die. Their blood is on our hands, regardless for whom we voted. If you pay taxes,
you have contributed to the three billion dollars a week now being spent to
drive Iraq into the hellhole it's become. When the civil war is over, we will
have to help rebuild Iraq. We can receive no redemption until we have atoned.

In closing, there is one final thing I know. We Americans are better than what
has been done in our name. A majority of us were upset and angry after 9/11 and
we lost our minds. We didn't think straight and we never looked at a map.
Because we are kept stupid through our pathetic education system and our lazy
media, we knew nothing of history. We didn't know that WE were the ones funding
and arming Saddam for many years, including those when he massacred the Kurds.
He was our guy. We didn't know what a Sunni or a Shiite was, never even heard
the words. Eighty percent of our young adults (according to National Geographic)
were not able to find Iraq on the map. Our leaders played off our stupidity, manipulated us with lies, and scared us to death.

But at our core we are a good people. We may be slow learners, but that "Mission
Accomplished" banner struck us as odd, and soon we began to ask some questions.
Then we began to get smart. By this past November 7th, we got mad and tried to
right our wrongs. The majority now know the truth. The majority now feel a deep
sadness and guilt and a hope that somehow we can make make it all right again.

Unfortunately, we can't. So we will accept the consequences of our actions and
do our best to be there should the Iraqi people ever dare to seek our help in
the future. We ask for their forgiveness.

We demand the Democrats listen to us and get out of Iraq now.

Yours,

Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com