It may be inconceivable to you that there are any Democrats who favor getting involved in another war in Iraq, especially a civil war based on bitter religious insanity going back over a thousand years. But it isn't inconceivable to me. Blue America will have to start asking our candidates how they feel about it, although since they are all progressives, I', guessing they will all be opposed. One candidate I won't have to guess about, though, is Rick Weiland, who's running for the open Senate seat in South Dakota. Today Rick let South Dakota voters know exactly where he stands-- no guess work for anyone, no matter who the president is. Please read it-- and if you agree, please think about contributing to Rick's grassroots campaign-- which the DSCC has been ignoring.
4,488 young Americans have lost their lives in Iraq.1.7 trillion dollars, that's trillion, with a T, are gone too.All spent to protect oil company profits from a holy war raging across their precious oil fields.Now the extremist war hawks in Washington want more. They demand we defend the honor of those who have fallen by sending more to fall.While, at the same time, we’ve failed miserably to provide our returning soldiers the health care they earned during their service over the past decade.That idea is beyond folly.You don't redeem the lives of brave young American men and women by ordering more brave young American lives to be lost in another misguided fight.The bravery of our troops speaks for itself. Their honor cannot be touched by the folly of politicians. It is preserved for all time by what they have sacrificed.What we need now is some honor from the politicians. Some bravery in the face of strident demands from the special interests that pay for their campaigns.Let me be clear.We have lost over 4,000 American men and women because cowardly politicians cared more about their contributions from oil companies than they did about those men and women.We have squandered over a trillion taxpayer dollars to protect special interest profits in the Middle East.God only knows how many young children we could have saved had those dollars been spent on their care. Or how much stronger our economy would be today had those dollars been spent on decent wages and innovation here in America.We do not defeat terrorism when we send young Americans to die for special interest profits, we create it.We meddle in their religious quarrels to try to create the precious stability the oil companies demand, and for our troubles we are hated by both sides.America would be richer and safer, and 4,488 young Americans would be alive, if our politicians were not addicted to special interest money.Some will call it extreme to tell that kind of truth.But what else other than pandering to big money can you call a policy that sends our soldiers into the middle of an endless religious war 10,000 miles from our shores?What strategic interest worth 1.7 trillion dollars and 4 thousand American lives do the people of the United States of America have in the victory of Shiites over Sunnis, or Sunnis over Shiites?Just to state the question exposes the utter folly of our oil driven Middle East adventure.There is no lobby for, nor explanation of, our having picked sides in a far away religious quarrel between sects of a religion foreign to all but a tiny sliver of Americans. No explanation save one. Oil.It is the energy industry that funds the war college professors and militarist politicians who peddle the most obviously self-serving pedagogy on the planet. Their five syllable words and 6 letter acronyms purport to find vital threats to American security. What they are really finding are vital threats to their big money paymasters.I am a patriotic American, and I am vehemently opposed to sending more men and women and dollars to Syria or Iraq.In fact, the case against doing so is so obvious, so one sided, so very clear it comes close to calling the patriotism of those who demand we weaken America still further by doing so into question.That is what I believe.It is time to get big money out of politics so we can get America out of ill-advised foreign adventures, and back to doing what we do best, building freedom and prosperity for all of our citizens here at home.
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