I vaguely remember attending a rally in Los Angeles sometime around late 2001, after we’d invaded Afghanistan. Yes, invaded. I acquired a bumper sticker I still have sitting in my room (I don’t usually put bumper stickers on my car): “Barbara Lee Speaks for me“. She was “the sole dissenting member of Congress on the authorization of the use of military force after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. She voted no on what she called a “blank check” for open-ended military action.”
Well, we are still there, in Afghanistan, long after memories of that rally have faded and I just remember grass, booths a la carnival, and people. If I can no longer remember the rally, or where it was, or what group of people I attended with, how can I remember what the cause is for our occupation of Afghanistan? Among other projects, the money spent on the the Afghan war could be used,
for example, [in] one of the hardest hit cities in the new economy: Detroit, Michigan. The Detroit metropolitan area has an unemployment rate of more than 11 percent. But this year alone, taxpayers in Detroit will pay $180.4 million for the war. WIth that same amount of money, Detroit could have hired 2,523 elementary school teachers, 3,435 firefighters, or 2,815 cops for a year. Our communities here in the U.S. are suffering in a terrible economic vise. When do we stop wasting money on this futile war and start getting serious about getting American back on its feet?
Barbara Lee Speaks For Me.
The Dole Blog 