Just two days ago John McCain made an effort to change his tone on the Iraq War. In a speech he gave in Columbus, Ohio McCain cut the time he planned to stay in Iraq by 95%. Dropping from 100 years, down to just five...at least for most of the troops there now.
Barack Obama on the other hand has a clear understanding of the toll this war is taking on our troops, on our nation, on the people of Iraq and on this nation's economy. Sen. Obama understands the urgency to end this war now.
John McCain doesn't seem to be concerned that 4,000 U.S. troops have lost their lives in this war, that another 30,000 have been wounded. John McCain is willing to put up with another five years of spending tax payer dollars in Iraq at the alarming rate of $300,000 an hour. And like most Republicans he won't even mention the Iraqi death toll, which is estimated to be anywhere from 60,000 to 600,000.
What about the 2 million-plus new Iraqi refugees? Or the $9 billion of taxpayer money that have been lost in Iraq or are unaccounted for? What about the 200,000 weapons that are lost or unaccounted for, undoubtedly in the hands of the ever growing insurgency we have helped create? John McCain seems all too willing to allow these numbers to continue growing throughout the next five years.
Escalating our containment policy in Iraq to full blown war in 2003 was the worst mistake this nation has ever made. It has weakened our nation in a military respect, an economic respect, a diplomatic respect and a moral respect. Every $5,000 second we spend there is one more second than we need to.
Barack Obama has understood this from the beginning. While John McCain was voting for the war, Obama was putting his political career at risk by speaking out against it..
Sen. Obama has continued his opposition to this war over the past six years. He has already made an effort to bring it to an end. In fact, if Sen. Obama had his way when he introduced legislation in the Senate back in January of 2007, we would already be out of Iraq. The plan called for all U.S. troops to be removed from Iraq by March of 2008.
With all of that being said, though, why should we trust Barack Obama's position on this war? After all, if we have learned nothing else from Hillary Clinton during this bitter nomination battle, we have at least learned that the man of a mixed racial background from the South Side of Chicago who only recently paid off his student loans is an elitist.
And we all know we can't take the opinions of an elitist seriously. So maybe, in order to get a better understanding of just how bad this war is, we should look to someone like Sergeant Matthis Chiroux and see what he thinks.
On Thursday afternoon Sergeant Chiroux stood in front of a group of members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and announced that after serving honorably in Afghanistan, The Philippines, Japan and Europe, he will not report for duty in Iraq next month.
His reasoning is clear and he laid it out in his comments on Thursday when he said "This occupation is unconstitutional and illegal and I hereby lawfully refuse to participate as I will surely be a party to war crimes. Furthermore, deployment in support of illegal war violates all of my core values as a human being, but in keeping with those values, I choose to remain in the United States to defend myself from charges brought by the Army if they so wish to pursue them."
Given the context of the past seven years what Chiroux is saying and doing is incredible. He is taking a personal stand against what is arguably the most powerful organization on the planet, the U.S. military and he's saying come and get me if you want, but I'm putting up a fight.
With that sentiment Matthis Chiroux is echoing what has been in the hearts and minds of millions of Americans and thousands of soldiers for years now: We're not afraid of a fight. We're not afraid to take anyone on. We have a strong desire to make America and the world a better place, but being willing to fight doesn't mean we're willing to commit or support war crimes. It does not mean we will blindly fall into lockstep behind a belligerent president and his administration.
Matthis Chiroux is a courageous American. He joined the Army in a post-9/11 world intent on serving his country while at the same time making college a possibility for him.
Since his honorable discharge six months ago he has been pursuing majors in journalism and pre-law. Now that the military is demanding this 24-year-old return to service in Iraq it will be interesting to see how he puts his journalistic skills to use.
After reading quite a bit about him and watching the video above, there is no doubt in my mind that Matthis Chiroux will help make this nation and planet a better place to live, even as he fights what may be the biggest fight of his life.
There is also no doubt in my mind that there are thousands of others, currently deployed in Iraq, who are capable of doing the same and the American voters should keep that in mind.
On November 4th, 2008 we, as Americans, have an important decision to make. The question we all must ask ourselves is whether we want the extraordinary talents of people like Matthis Chiroux to be put to use here in America or do we want to continue the policy of the past five years and, at the very minimum, double the amount of time we keep that talent in Iraq?
Under John McCain's leadership we will continue building schools, roads and infrastructure in Iraq and potentially prosecute Matthis Chiroux. Under Barack Obama's leadership we will end the madness in Iraq and begin bringing the troops home right away so that we can focus on schools, roads and infrastructure here in the United States.
We've tried the Bush/McCain plan and it isn't working. It is time for a new direction.
Thank you Sergeant Chiroux for your service and for your courage.
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