Thursday, August 16, 2007

Cincinnati's Part of the Iraq War - MoveOn.org Event

Sign reading Support the Troops - End the War

Yay! I participated! I just got back from the MoveOn.org local Cincinnati (CincinnatiMoveOn.org) press release gathering concerning the local cost of the Iraq War. I even got some pictures.

Brent Spence Bridge
We gathered near the Brent Spence Bridge - Covington, KY exit - for infrastructure relevancy and quality visibility.

Cost of Iraq War gathering
The group wasn't huge: about a dozen or so in attendance. The media never showed.

Enlist! sign as response to war loving goons
A particularly clever sign had a quick-flip answer to the occasional middle finger.

Cost of Iraq Board
This was the point...

MoveOn.org rep/organizer
...that our MoveOn.org organizer (Dick Manoukian) read about, sans cameras.

How about some of that Iraq War information? By the numbers, of course:
  • $456 billion - monies appropriated for the war so far (that's $4,100 for every household in the U.S.)
  • $15.99 billion - cost to Ohio taxpayers
  • $806 million - cost to Ohio's 1st District (over $2.5 billion adding Ohio's 2nd district and Kentucky's 4th, encompassing the local metro area)
What could Ohio's 1st District citizens have gotten instead?
  • Health care coverage for 270,399 people - or 458,768 kids, or
  • Head Start for 124,560 additional kids, or
  • 13,708 new elementary school teachers, or
  • 99,814 scholarships to make college more affordable, or
  • Renewable electricity for 903,450 homes, or
  • 7,524 affordable housing units, or
  • 19,351 public safety officers to keep the streets safe
In late 2002, Bush's Budget Director estimated the cost of the Iraq War at $50 to $60 billion. When Bush's Chief Economic Adviser, Lawrence Lindsey, publicly estimated that the war in Iraq might cost $100 billion to $200 billion, he was fired. Now we're at $450 billion and shuttling towards $1 trillion.

What is the tipping point for the American people? What will get 100 or 200 or a thousand local people so pissed off about how our country is being mismanaged that they, too, will appear in a park by a highway exit to gain more visibility and more visibility until we cannot be ignored? Is it $1 trillion spent? Is it 5,000 or 10,000 Americans dead?

Is it seeing Dick Cheney say that invading Baghdad and deposing Saddam would be a horrible idea...back in 1994?

One thing is for certain: we will change nothing by sitting on our asses and whining about it. Get active. Get involved.

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