Derrick Crowe is a 5-year veteran of Capitol Hill who left D.C. over his objections to Democrats’ choice in the 2008 presidential campaign to urge escalation in Afghanistan.
October 7th, 2010
I spent several days last week giving guest lectures about the Afghanistan War to freshmen and seniors at Anderson High School in Austin, Texas. It's no secret that I loathe this brutal, futile war that's not making us safer. So, when I talk to kids about it, I state my ...
The Afghanistan War's Tenth Year Must Be Its Last
October 10, 2010 starts year ten of the Afghanistan War. Almost a decade of war in one of the most unforgiving terrains in the world, for ends we can't define. Can anyone name a single way in which this war still serves the national interest, if it ever did? We ...
Biden warned Obama during Afghan war review not to get 'locked into Vietnam'
On Thanksgiving weekend in 2009, as President Obama was crafting his final Afghan war strategy, Vice President Biden fired off six handwritten memos by secure fax from Nantucket island in Massachusetts, where the Biden family traditionally gathered to celebrate the November holiday. As Biden had for months, he was keeping ...
Military thwarted president seeking choice in Afghanistan
President Obama was on edge. For two exhausting months, he had been asking military advisers to give him a range of options for the war in Afghanistan. Instead, he felt that they were steering him toward one outcome and thwarting his search for an exit plan. He would later tell ...
Mixed messages from Obama, Petraeus on Afghanistan pullout
WASHINGTON - Even as new disclosures reveal that President Obama was leaning hard on the Pentagon to come up with an exit strategy for Afghanistan with no “wiggle room,” US troops on the ground are increasingly seeking out just that.As they make their case, soldiers tend to point to the ...
One and a Half Cheers for American Decline
Compare two assessments of the American future:In the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll in which 61% of Americans interviewed considered “things in the nation” to be “on the wrong track,” 66% did “not feel confident that life for our children’s generation will be better than it has been for us.” ...
All Saints Episcopal Church of East Lansing will still have Quran reading Saturday
EAST LANSING – The small Gainesville, Fla. church which threatened to burn the Quran may have postponed, or even canceled, its protest, but All Saints Episcopal Church will still conduct its open reading of the Muslim holy book.All Saints Episcopal Church rector Kit Carlson posted this on Facebook:"We will still ...
[Welcome to OpenMike. This is where Mike blogs. Soon to be its own pretty section of MichaelMoore.com] So the friggin' SECRETARY OF DEFENSE took time off running all our wars to call some nutjob preacher in Florida. And we have to witness the sissy sight of Gen. Petraeus begging from ...
Reaction to proposed Koran burning doesn't faze Florida church
The pastor of a tiny, fringe evangelical church in Florida on Tuesday rebuffed a plea for restraint from Gen. David H. Petraeus, who warned that a plan to burn the Muslim holy book could provoke violence against American troops and citizens overseas."Instead of possibly blaming us for what could happen, ...
For Gates the US war in Iraq is over but cloud remains
CAMP RAMADI, Iraq — US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that America's war in Iraq is over but admitted that the outcome will remain "clouded" by the reason it was waged in the first place.Asked by reporters at Camp Ramadi, an American base about 100 kilometres (80 miles) west ...
The truth about the 'end of combat operations'
Early in the month, on Aug. 7, Army Specialist Faith Hinkley dove for cover from a rocket propelled grenade while on her base in Iraq. She was hit with shrapnel from the explosion, and bled to death in Baghdad. She was 23 years old.A week later, on Aug. 15, Army ...
More U.S. Troops Killed in Afghanistan Under Obama Than Under Bush
During former-Pres. George W. Bush’s tenure, 575 U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan. Since President Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009, 580 U.S. troops have perished there (as of August 19). In just 19 months, the Afghan war under Obama has claimed more U.S. lives than the previous administration’s ...
US troops shoot three during Bagram anti-war protest
United States troops shot three civilians including a 12-year-old boy at a demonstration near its main base at Bagram airfield at the weekend - the latest in a rising wave of protests against the occupation. Nato claimed the soldiers had been forced to shoot at locals after they surrounded contractors ...
Petraeus hedges on US exit date from Afghanistan
The new commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, Gen David Petraeus, says he will not be bound by a 2011 target date to start withdrawing US troops. Speaking on NBC television, Gen Petraeus said he reserved the right to tell President Obama whether the pull-out date was too early. He ...
Karzai to ban private security companies in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office on Monday announced that it will close the country's 52 private security companies by year's end, a decision that could create more risks along the U.S.-led military's critical supply routes into Afghanistan. The announcement appeared to catch NATO and U.S. officials by ...
Robert Gates sets retirement date for next year
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates confirmed last night plans to leave office next year. However, he said he first wanted to make sure the start of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan was on track.The confirmation, in an interview with the magazine Foreign Policy, was published after Dr Gates locked horns ...
Robert Gates Says He'll Leave Pentagon by End of 2011
Defense Secretary Robert Gates says that he may leave his job possibly as early as January but certainly by the end of 2011, Foreign Policy Magazine reports. "It would be a mistake to wait until January 2012," Gates said in an interview. "This is not the kind of job you ...
Petraeus Might Advise Afghanistan Troop Drawdown Delay
Gen. David Petraeus, the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said that he could "certainly" advise President Obama to delay the Afghanistan troop draw down slated to begin in July 2011, if that's what the conditions on the ground called for. Petraeus recently replaced the ousted Gen. Stanley McChrystal in Afghanistan. ...
Civilian death toll rises by a third in Afghanistan
More civilians were killed or injured in Afghanistan in the first half of this year than in any six-month spell since the war began, a United Nations report released yesterday said.The total number of casualties soared by 31 per cent in comparison with the same period in 2009, according to ...
U.S. worried by Hamid Karzai's attempt to assert control over corruption probes
Obama administration officials fear that a move by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to assert control over U.S.-backed corruption investigations might provoke the biggest crisis in U.S.-Afghan relations since last year's fraud-riddled election and could further threaten congressional approval of billions of dollars in pending aid. The concerns were sparked by ...
Afghan soldier kills US trainers in shooting exercise
KABUL — An Afghan soldier opened fire at a training exercise in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing two US civilian trainers and a fellow Afghan soldier in the second similar shootout in just a week.The shooting raised further questions about the quality of the fledgling Afghan army as the international ...
Secretary Gates agrees to work on war message in meeting with GOP senators
President Obama has a problem with mixed messages about when American troops will leave Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Senate Republicans.At a meeting on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Republicans complained about inconsistency among political, policy and military leaders in the administration, telling Gates this cast doubt on U.S. military ...
Afghan hunt for rogue soldier after British killings
KABUL — A renegade Afghan soldier is on the run after killing three British soldiers on a base in the troubled south of the country, adding to concerns about NATO-led efforts to help build up the Afghan army.Afghan's army chief vowed a full investigation into Tuesday's shooting but Britain, the ...
Lawmakers showing rising frustration with Afghan war
WASHINGTON Democratic and Republican senators voiced deep concern Wednesday over the direction of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, questioning whether the Obama administration can begin withdrawing U.S. troops next summer and worrying that it lacks a plan for forging a political settlement. "We need a better definition of exactly what ...
Gallup: Most Americans like Petraeus, but see difficulty in Afghanistan
In Iowa Monday, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich summed up in his own feelings the profile of most Americans on the thorny topic of the war in Afghanistan that emerges in the new Gallup Poll.“I like Dave a lot. I’ve known him for years. I think he’s wonderful,” Gingrich ...
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January 17th, 2012
STOP SOPA: Why MichaelMoore.com Will Be Blacked Out Wednesday, January 18th
My websites MichaelMoore.com and Mike's High School Newspaper will both be going dark for 24 hours starting at midnight tonight in protest of the Stop ...
December 30th, 2011
75 Years Ago Today, the First Occupy
On this day, December 30th, in 1936 -- 75 years ago today -- hundreds of workers at the General Motors factories in Flint, Michigan, took ...
December 28th, 2011
Click here to donate to the congressional campaign of Flint's own Dan Kildee I have many things I'm planning to do in the New Year ...
December 24th, 2011
A Little Christmas Gift for You to Download
Thanks for all the wonderful comments regarding the short story about my mom from HERE COMES TROUBLE that I sent you a few days ago. ...
December 20th, 2011
Here's a New Free Chapter from HERE COMES TROUBLE
Thank you to the tens of thousands of you who have read HERE COMES TROUBLE and helped to make it a New York Times bestseller ...
December 18th, 2011
LAST CALL: Signed First Editions Will Be Gone by Tomorrow! ORDER TODAY, RECEIVE BY XMAS
My publisher has informed me that they are down to their last crate of the first printing/first editions of HERE COMES TROUBLE -- the ones ...
December 17th, 2011
A Man in Tunisia, a Movement on Wall Street, and the Soldier Who Ignited the Fuse
It's Saturday night and I didn't want the day to end before I sent out this note to you. One year ago today (December 17th), ...
September 11th, 2010
If the 'Mosque' Isn't Built, This Is No Longer America
OpenMike 9/11/10 Michael Moore's daily blog I am opposed to the building of the "mosque" two blocks from Ground Zero. I want it built on ...
December 14th, 2010
Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange
Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that ...
May 12th, 2011
Some Final Thoughts on the Death of Osama bin Laden
"The Nazis killed tens of MILLIONS. They got a trial. Why? Because we're not like them. We're Americans. We roll different." – Michael Moore in ...
November 22nd, 2011
Where Does Occupy Wall Street Go From Here?
This past weekend I participated in a four-hour meeting of Occupy Wall Street activists whose job it is to come up with the vision and ...
September 22nd, 2011
A STATEMENT FROM MICHAEL MOORE ON THE EXECUTION OF TROY DAVIS
I encourage everyone I know to never travel to Georgia, never buy anything made in Georgia, to never do business in Georgia. I will ask ...
December 16th, 2010
Dear Swedish Government: Hi there -- or as you all say, Hallå! You know, all of us here in the U.S. love your country. Your ...
November 2nd, 2010
This letter contains (almost) no criticisms of how the Democrats have brought this day of reckoning upon themselves. That -- and where to go from ...
Home Front: Portraits from Sheikh Jarrah
Mike, was the triple overtime Outback Bowl come-from-behind win the greatest Spartans game ever?
Yes -- or at least it will be until their appearance in next year's Rose Bowl, a game which... Continue Reading
Michael Moore on Conan, 12/7/11
Michael Moore on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, 11/21/11
Michael Moore on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, 11/15/11
Michael Moore on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, 11/9/11
