Michael Moore urges Obama to avoid troop surge in Afghanistan

Long before President Barack Obama ordered an additional 30,000 U.S. troops into Afghanistan, filmmaker Michael Moore appealed to Obama not to escalate the conflict in that country with more soldiers.

Moore’s appeal was made while he was in Japan this week to promote his latest documentary Capitalism: A Love Story.

Moore said: ”I passed on to him a personal request from my father and his Japanese friend: ‘Mr. Obama, you do not know war. We both know war and want it no more.’”

The activist-director, who was in Japan for the first time, lashed out during a press conference at the former U.S. president George W. Bush for his war policies in Iraq and Afghanistan . He also chided Tokyo for supporting Bush’s policies by sending non-combat troops to Iraq and adopting pro-market economic policies.

Moore paid high tribute to Japan’s traditional values and urged the Japanese people to return to a “society of peace and respect.”

“As much as I like America, quit being like us.  Be Japan,” he said.

[via yahoo.com; image: AFP]