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Michael Moore Discusses Afghanistan on Larry King Live, October 29, 2009

KING: Let's touch another base here Michael, while we have you. Let's talk about Afghanistan. You were very critical in "Fahrenheit 911" over Bush and Iraq. Are you equally critical over Obama and Afghanistan?

MOORE: I think it's critical he's in the process of making his decision. I think it's impressive that he's a thoughtful man. It's great to have a smart person in the White House who really thinks about the cost of human life before making a big decision like this.

It is my sincere hope that he decides to wind down and end this war, at least our part of this war, in Afghanistan. Initially, the idea of going and trying to capture the criminals who committed a mass murder on 9/11, that was a good idea. But we never did that.

And I hope he still has something that does that, but I don't know if that's in Afghanistan, where there's now less than 100 Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and we've got 100,000 coalition troops and another 200,000 afghan troops. I mean, this is not -- we need to leave. This is not our business.

And yesterday, Larry, that story in "The New York Times" about how the brother of the president of Afghanistan, the brother of Karzai, is suspected of being involved in the opium trade, which funds the Taliban, and our CIA pays this man. So we're paying the guy who's helping to create the money that's funding the Taliban that's killing our soldiers.

Are we, like, an insane country? When is this going to stop? I want this ended. I want these troops home.

KING: Didn't he kind of run on a campaign to bring troops home from just about everywhere and that he has kind of been accused of dawdling?

MOORE: No, he's not -- he's not dawdling. First of all, when he campaigned, he said it was going to take about a year and a half to wind down Iraq. OK. We're in the middle of that year and a half. That's what he's doing.

With Afghanistan, this is no longer the police action to find the criminals who committed that crime. This is now expanded into something else, into building a nation, into fighting the Taliban.

The Taliban are -- they're -- the people of Afghanistan. The people of Afghanistan have to settle that problem. That's not our problem to solve. And if President Obama decides to sends more troops, then it becomes Obama's war. It's not Bush's war anymore. It will be Obama's war.

And I'll tell you, I get this feeling from some of his people that he's going to try to hit the middle ground, like he's not going to send a whole bunch of troops, but he's going to send a few troops.

And any Vietnam vet that's watching this right now, they know the sound of that. "Well, we don't want to commit all the way, but we're going to commit a little bit. You know, kind of. You know?"

I mean, that is like -- that is the absolute thing, the worst thing for our troops. We're going to see more deaths, more coffins coming home. This has got to stop.

It's -- there is no middle ground. You're either going to go all out and fight a big war that can't be won, or you're going to bring the troops home and focus on the problems that we have right now -- huge unemployment, global warming, a health care mess, all these things, our educational system, everything.

KING: But then if you leave -- but if you leave, you then leave the Taliban to run the show, right, and a possible another 9/11?

MOORE: They are already running half the show there anyways. And not another possible 9/11, because Al Qaeda has left there. They booked out of the neighborhood, Larry. They're long gone, OK? They're in Pakistan, they're in parts of Africa, they're elsewhere in the Middle East. You know, they're here in the U.S.

They're a really Internet operation now, as Matthew Hull, this State Department individual who resigned last month over the Afghanistan policy -- you should go online and read his letter of resignation. You'll see he explains it very clearly that if we want to deal with Al Qaeda, the last place we need to be right now is in Afghanistan.

That's just a crazy, crazy-making place. It's unwinnable. It's immoral. It's illegal. It's wrong.

And what is our CIA doing paying the brother of the president of Afghanistan, who's involved in this opium trade that's funding the Taliban? I mean, where -- when does this stop?

KING: What do you mean -- he attended the transfer of bodies at Dover Air Force Base today, of 15 U.S. soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, powerful media images. President Bush did not, he focused away from that. What did you think of that?

MOORE: I thought that was -- I thought that was a very moving, sad, profound moment.

I am so glad we have that man in the White House. Even though I may have whatever disagreements I may have or I wish things were moving faster or whatever, to see that there today, Larry, to show that kind of concern that we never saw in the last eight years, thousands of our young boys and girls gone, dead, returning home, no pictures, no pictures allowed.

And then for him to stand there today proudly as the commander in chief, and to be there for them and for their families, I know this is weighing on him. And I'm going to trust in all my heart that he's going to make the right decision, that he doesn't want this to be called "Obama's war." This cannot be his Vietnam. I don't believe he's going to let that happen.