In this coming month, the Bush Administration will celebrate its four year anniversary of military involvement in Iraq. That makes the current Iraq War longer than the involvement of the U.S. in World War II. But there is a new chance for change in America as Illinois State Senator Barak Obama announced his bid for the presidency two weeks ago. In his speech for his presidential bid, Obama spoke of investing in education, reshaping the economy for the digital age, protecting employee benefits, insuring those who cannot afford health care, ending poverty, freeing America from foreign oil dependency and fighting terrorism by rebuilding global alliances. Among all these he said the first and most important priority must be to end the war in Iraq.”It’s time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else’s civil war,” he said. He added that he was against the war from the beginning.The common argument made against Obama is his inexperience. The second year Senator’s lack of a track record in Washington has become one of his biggest assets. As for early Democratic front-runner Hilary Clinton, not so great an asset (voted in favor of invading Iraq in 2003).Barak Obama is currently a member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has focused on nuclear weapons in former Soviet satellites, he acted as one of the few senators out front on the world’s A.I.D.S. epidemic and genocide in Sudan, and has sponsored legislation on keeping chemical plants environmentally safe. Given the role a President has in foreign policy, Obama looks more experienced than Governors Carter, Clinton, and Bush did during their bids for president.For the first time in our nation’s history has it been more possible for either a woman or African-American man to run the White House. A call for change has been spoken by the majority of Americans and in 2010 we will decide future’s fate.
