Senator Obama is on a roll this week. First he started off with a landmark speech about race in America that will probably go down in history as one of the best of our generation. Now today he went to an area with a particularly hard hit economy (West Virginia) and spoke more truth. It is apparent truth that few politicians will mention, the simple fact that if we weren't throwing money away on Iraq, this country would be so much better off.
From the speech:
Instead of fighting this war, we could be fighting to make universal health care a reality in this country. We could be fighting for the young woman who works the night shift after a full day of college and still can't afford medicine for a sister who's ill. For what we spend in several months in Iraq, we could be providing them with the quality, affordable health care that every American deserves.
Instead of fighting this war, we could be fighting to give every American a quality education. We could be fighting for the young men and women all across this country who dream big dreams but aren't getting the kind of education they need to reach for those dreams. For a fraction of what we're spending each year in Iraq, we could be giving our teachers more pay and more support, rebuilding our crumbling schools, and offering a tax credit to put a college degree within reach for anyone who wants one.
Instead of fighting this war, we could be fighting to rebuild our roads and bridges. I've proposed a fund that would do just that and generate nearly two million new jobs – many in the construction industry that's been hard hit by our housing crisis. And it would cost just six percent of what we spend each year in Iraq.
Instead of fighting this war, we could be freeing ourselves from the tyranny of oil, and saving this planet for our children. We could be investing in renewable sources of energy, and in clean coal technology, and creating up to 5 million new green jobs in the bargain, including new clean coal jobs. And we could be doing it all for the cost of less than a year and a half in Iraq.
That is just a small slice from the entire thing, which I recommend to anyone to either read, watch or listen to it. It is like nothing that Hillary Clinton will mention and is the exact opposite of the direction John McCain wants us to continue in. This war has been a mess, a disaster, a catastrophe. It is time to get out and put the people in our country back in the number one spot for our government's priorities.
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