Remember Iraq?

Remember Iraq?

Iraq War, terrorism, employment, education, health care, President Bush, Al Qaeda

Let's keep the tragedy of the war in the foreground.

There was a time when such tragic news would have been above the fold on the front page. We are rapidly approaching a heartbreaking milestone - the 4,000th American death in Iraq.

By Citizen Correspondent David Mixner

Date Posted: 01/15/08

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As the presidential campaign increasingly focuses on the worsening economy and other domestic issues, the war in Iraq has faded into the background. Just this week, President Bush said we could be there for 10 more years and Senator McCain grandly proclaimed that 100 years of occupation would be perfectly fine with him. There was hardly a ripple of protest from anyone...

I recently learned that nine American soldiers had died in Iraq over just two days when reading page 12 in the New York Times, as I skimmed other news of apparent less importance. There was a time when such tragic news would have been above the fold on the front page. We are rapidly approaching a heartbreaking milestone - the 4,000th American death in Iraq. Still, we seem to have put the debate around the war on the back burner.

Of course, millions of Americans are having trouble finding good jobs, paying for fuel, heating their homes and obtaining quality health care for their families. Social Security and Medicare are in real trouble, too. These issues are important and drive our daily quality of life as citizens, but why do people think we are in such economic trouble? According to the National Priorities Project, the war is costing us $275 million every single day! So far, each household has paid $4,100 for the war.

Heath Care
Last year the war cost us $137.6 billion! Listen carefully - we could have provided 39,240,332 people with full health care coverage with these funds! Almost every American without health insurance could have received health care services last year.

Education
For the cost of the war in 2007, we could have sent more than 22,000,000 students to college. Not only are our young people dying in Iraq, we are handicapping the future of those still here at home.

Employment
Imagine the jobs we could have created by investing in American the $485 billion we have spent so far in Iraq! We could have repaired our crumbling infrastructure, build new “green” transit systems and expanded educational institutions.