10/29/05: Iraq War's Needless Cost Of Lives, Money Hurts Us At Home - Rae Vogeler
Iraq War's Needless Cost Of Lives, Money Hurts Us At Home
The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: 11A
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Rae Vogeler U.S. Senate candidate Green Party Oregon
Dear Editor: I have been traveling the state, talking to people about peace and economic issues. I have found that the overwhelming concern of Wisconsin residents is the war in Iraq and the ongoing cutbacks here at home.
People are angry that we are spending $1.5 billion a week (a mind-boggling amount of money) on a needless war and we can't even take care of our own here at home. Forty-five million Americans have no health insurance. Schools are closing down for lack of funds, and people are working more hours and making less money.
A Madison referendum is being sought to give citizens the right to vote on the question: "Should the United States bring all military personnel home from Iraq now?" Similar efforts to are under way in Milwaukee, La Crosse, Oshkosh and other cities. This is about democracy in action, and the ability of people to express their views on the war. It would send a strong message to Washington on how our money should be spent and where our National Guard should be stationed. In fact, it is the taxpayers who foot the bill for war, while military contractors, like Halliburton, make huge profits.
Recently, the U.S. Senate voted to allocate $50 billion more for the Iraq war, and now Congress is talking of cutting $50 billion from domestic programs. The war is being waged at home and abroad. People keep asking, why are we even in Iraq? There were no weapons of mass destruction. There were no ties to al-Qaida. Eighty percent of the Iraqi people want us to leave their country. Let's do what they ask.
Meanwhile, here on the home front, people are suffering because our government is not providing the basics. We saw this in Louisiana and Mississippi, where individuals were left to die -- many of whom were African American. The National Guard were not here where we needed them. And our money was all tied up in warmongering. Resources were not allocated to fix the levees and prevent a disaster, or to help people after disaster struck.
We are the richest nation in the world and we can't even organize rescue operations in our own cities. Here in Wisconsin, residents of Stoughton were hit by a tornado and have not seen one cent from the federal government.
It's time that we get our priorities straight. Rather than killing people in another land and losing 2,000 American soldiers to a senseless war, let's put resources toward sustaining lives at home. We can do this by getting the referendum question on the April 2006 ballot and by voting to bring our troops home now.