Extractos de carta de Michael Moore; ¿Quién es R. Gates, candidato a Sec de Defensa de EU?

Hoy marca el día en que se cumple el tiempo que duró la segunda guerra mundial : extracto de una carta escrita por Michael Moore:

"... 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:
< http://www.michaelm oore.com/ words/latestnews /index.php? id=8080> Johns
Hopkins University), 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 <http://www.michaelm oore.com/> opening page of my website
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
< http://www.michaelmoore.com

Mientras tanto: esta es la información que publica Democracy Now! Hoy sobre Robert Gates, candidato a secretario de Defensa: : Robert Gates apoyó bombardeo contra Nicaragua en 1984
Documentos del gobierno recientemente desclasificados revelan que el candidato del Presidente Bush para convertirse en el nuevo Secretario de Defensa, Robert Gates, recomendó al Presidente Reagan que bombardeara Nicaragua en 1984, en un intento por derrocar al gobierno sandinista. En ese entonces, Gates era el subdirector de la CIA. En un memorando al Director de la CIA William Casey, Gates escribió que Estados Unidos debería hacer todo lo que esté a su alcance -menos llevar a cabo una invasión- para derrocar al gobierno sandinista. Gates también estuvo muy vinculado con el escándalo "Irán-Contras" y fue acusado de ayudar a armar secretamente a Saddam Hussein. Está programado que las audiencias para la designación de Gates comiencen el 5 de diciembre.