Ahead of President Obama's speech later today, when he's expected to announce that more than 30 thousand extra US troops will be sent to Afghanistan, Michael Moore has made a personal appeal asking him not to become the new 'war president':
With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they've always heard is true - that all politicians are alike.
Being the backbone of his campaign should have made it possible for anyone, young or old, to anticipate that Obama wouldn't immediately wind down the US military presence in Afghanistan. Apart from that, you wonder how the president will be able to resist the moderate tones of Moore's advocacy:
... the breakdown of this great civilization we call America will head, full throttle, into oblivion if you become the "war president."
Only the breakdown of American civilization? But, then, do you think Moore means it's the civilization that will be heading for oblivion? Or is it the breakdown? In any case, for a contrasting, less breathless set of thoughts about US policy in Afghanistan, see this column by Fred Kaplan.