Congratulations President Obama on the Nobel Peace Prize -- Now Please Earn it!

Friday, October 9th, 2009

Dear President Obama,

How outstanding that you've been recognized today as a man of peace.
Your swift, early pronouncements -- you will close Guantanamo, you will
bring the troops home from Iraq, you want a nuclear weapon-free world,
you admitted to the Iranians that we overthrew their
democratically-elected president in 1953, you made that great speech to
the Islamic world in Cairo, you've eliminated that useless term "The
War on Terror," you've put an end to torture -- these have all made us
and the rest of the world feel a bit more safe considering the disaster
of the past eight years. In eight months you have done an about face
and taken this country in a much more sane direction.

But...

The irony that you have been awarded this prize on the 2nd day of
the ninth year of our War in Afghanistan is not lost on anyone. You are
truly at a crossroads now. You can listen to the generals and expand
the war (only to result in a far-too-predictable defeat) or you can
declare Bush's Wars over, and bring all the troops home. Now. That's
what a true man of peace would do.

There is nothing wrong with you doing what the last guy failed to do
-- capture the man or men responsible for the mass murder of 3,000
people on 9/11. BUT YOU CANNOT DO THAT WITH TANKS AND TROOPS. You are
pursuing a criminal, not an army. You do not use a stick of dynamite to
get rid of a mouse.

The Taliban is another matter. That is a problem for the people of
Afghanistan to resolve -- just as we did in 1776, the French did in
1789, the Cubans did in 1959, the Nicaraguans did in 1979 and the
people of East Berlin did in 1989. One thing is certain through all
revolutions by people who wish to be free -- they ultimately have to
bring about that freedom themselves. Others can be supportive, but
freedom can not be delivered from the front seat of someone else's
Humvee.

You have to end our involvement in Afghanistan now. If you don't, you'll have no choice but to return the prize to Oslo.

Yours,
Michael Moore

MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. Your opposition has spent the morning attacking you for bringing
such good will to this country. Why do they hate America so much? I get
the feeling that if you found the cure for cancer this afternoon they'd
be denouncing you for destroying free enterprise because cancer centers
would have to close. There are those who say you've done nothing yet to
deserve this award. As far as I'm concerned, the very fact that you've
offered to walk into the minefield of hate and try to undo the
irreparable damage the last president did is not only appreciated by me
and millions of others, it is also an act of true bravery. That's why
you got the prize. The whole world is depending on the U.S. -- and you
-- to literally save this planet. Let's not let them down.