Redistributing Our Wealth, Patriot Version

The only thing I can really agree with from the president's speech last night is his mention of just how draining the war in Iraq has been on this country:

Unfortunately, over the last decade, we have not done what is necessary to shore up the foundation of our own prosperity. We have spent over a trillion dollars at war, often financed by borrowing from overseas. This, in turn, has short-changed investments in our own people, and contributed to record deficits. For too long, we have put off tough decisions on everything from our manufacturing base to our energy policy to education reform. As a result, too many middle class families find themselves working harder for less, while our nation's long-term competitiveness is put at risk.

This really doesn't even do it justice. No doubt about it, what we accomplished in Iraq was redistributing over a trillion dollars of our wealth to a foreign country. Republicans call this socialism when Democrats do it.  Yes a vast majority of that wealth was used to wage war and kill people, but redistributed it was.  In addition to blowing Iraq up, we have spent the better part of a decade building schools, mosques, roads, bridges, and other infrastructure in a foreign country.  In the process, large American corporations got very rich.  Halliburton, Dick Cheney's former company, to this day is still receiving no bid contracts and billions more still spill into corporate hands.  The War Profiteers have enjoyed it immensely.

I thought the president was light on his criticism of the war.  I suppose he had to be because one ill-placed sentence of criticism would have landed him in the "I hate our troops" category of which he would have had to defend himself from endlessly; if not invade Iran just to prove how heroic and loving of our troops he is.

Notwithstanding reality, the war itself was a huge mistake.  Not only did it turn our attention away from those responsible for 9/11, it drained our country of valuable resources the least of which was money and the most important of which was our soldiers and Marines.  Plenty of people stood opposed to it in 2002 and 2003 and were blatantly ignored and publicly ridiculed by media and chickenhawk supporters of war without end.  The entire episode is symbolic of everything that is wrong about American interventionism in the early 21st century.

*Update:

Like children disappointed when the candy runs out, Fox News was appalled by the above segment from Obama's speech.  As expected, the president should never mention anything negative about Glorious War.  In terms of costs, the war was worth every penny and mentioning it in the context that it was expensive and counterproductive only leads Fox News to totally make up complete lies.

What a bunch of crap.  The costs of the war in Iraq have only begun.  We will for decades to come be spending infinite amounts of money on veterans of the war.  Plus we are still in the process of rebuilding Iraq.  We have many more schools and mosques to build.  And don't leave out the fact that we still have troops in Iraq, which will cost more money to keep there.

But let's get over all that and the fact that Fox is intentionally distorting CBO numbers to make the wartime president appear out of touch, which would have been called treasonous by Fox had a media network done the same to Bush.  Let's just take their assumptions head on.  This is what it boils down to.  Would you rather spend a trillion dollars in a foreign country blowing it up, rebuilding it only to blow it up again while killing hundreds of thousands of people.  Or would you rather spend that money here at home on our own people creating jobs, growing the economy, building roads, schools, greater broadband access and advancing our own country into the 21st century?  That's the choice presented to us.  That's the choice Fox News wants us to make. The differences are vast.  Spend a trillion at home or on Muslims.  You decide.