[THS] Michael Moore: Nobel Peace Prize -- Now Please Earn it!

[Peter Webster]

From: "Michael Moore" <maillist at michaelmoore.com>
Date: October 9, 2009 11:10:10 AM PDT
Subject: Congratulations President Obama on the Nobel Peace Prize -- Now Please
Earn it!

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 at 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.