red onion

A new poll in Iowa today shows Dennis Kucinich with zero percent support of the populace. Howard Dean, who has advocated keeping our bloated Pentagon budget as is, and wanted to bomb Iraq after a 90 day waiting period, is first. John Kerry, who supported the Iraq war resolution, and is a Vietnam veteran, is second.

Kucinich wants to bring our troops home, and increase the role of the UN in Iraq. Kucinich was against this war from the beginning. Kucinich wants to create a Department of Peace. He would like to cut the bloated Pentagon budget and use the funds for education for our children and to create a universal health plan.

In this war on Iraq that we initiated, that has escalated to guerrila warfare, we are finding out just how costly the war will be, in terms of money, in terms of lives lost. However, what Dennis Kucinich is finding out, as are all of his supporters who mistakenly thought his message would be loved by the people, is that if war has a high cost, then peace has an even greater cost.

The cost of peace can be measured by the billions the American companies would lose in Iraq if they were unable to go forward with plans to reconstruct what we have destroyed there. The cost of peace would be a loss of profits for all those companies profiting from this war.

The cost of peace would be measured by the highest officials of our country having to admit they were wrong, and accepting responsibility for what they have wrought.

The cost of peace would be measured by millions of Americans admitting they were wrong to so willing follow our leaders into a war that was neither necessary nor advisable.

The cost of peace would be measured by our willingness to redefine the meaning of "patriotism", that a true patriot is one who questions their government on each and every decision and issue.

The cost of peace would be measured by our willingness to accept humility as a virtue, and the willingness to drop the superman motif; the bring 'em on mentality as though our skin were impenentrable and our hearts unstoppable.

The cost of peace would be measured by our willingness to change our belief that "we are the greatest country in the world" to "we are only as great as the effects of our last decision".

The cost of peace would be measured by our willingness to listen to those who oppose us, and by our willingness to include those who oppose us into our family of humankind.

We are not yet ready for this change of heart. If we were, Dennis Kucinich would be well on his way to becoming our next president.