Our soldiers' sacrifice has NOT been in vain.

Finally, a candidate for president who actually GETS it.  Full transcript of campaign speech below the fold, with video to follow.  Just for fun, read the speech before skipping to the end for his/her identity. Was it MY preferred choice, or YOURS, who finally had the courage to speak truth to power?

As I’ve traveled from state to state campaigning for the Democratic nomination, it has been my privilege to speak with so many good people of faith.  Not just religious faith, but faith in our democracy and faith that those we elect to represent us, more often than not, try to act in our best interest.  Tragically, however, for the past six and a half years, our faith in America has been badly abused.  The Bush administration and its enablers in the Congress have not just ABUSED our faith – they have EXPLOITED it - cynically, ruthlessly and, it saddens me to say, successfully.

Young men and women of faith have taken up arms to fight the war in Iraq.  They had faith in the sober judgment and basic decency of our elected representatives.  They had faith that their Commander in Chief would NOT send them into battle unless our nation was confronted with a grave threat and the evidence of that threat was incontrovertible.  In hindsight, of course, we know that faith was misplaced.  And yet, the war in Iraq HAS been wildly "successful".  Corporate contractors of supplies and services have been reaping record profits.   It’s not just Haliburton and its subsidiaries. There are HUNDREDS of contractors riding this gravy train, and the Engineer Guy is bound and determined to route the train east into Iran.  And those profits will just keep on rollin’ in, enriching the corporate executives and all their savvy shareholders and, of course, the "real politik" Congressmen who know which side their campaign bread is buttered on.

This war was NEVER about weapons of mass destruction or Sadam’s supposed ties to Osama bin Laden or the focus group tested "global war on terror".  From the moment the war in Iraq was planned, years before, incidentally, the convenient trigger of 9/11, the goal has been corporate enrichment.  It’s that simple.  It’s that obscene.

And if ridding Iraq of WMD and "fighting the terrorists there so we won’t have to fight ‘em here" has been nothing more than a cynical, calculated ruse, does it not follow that the sacrifice of life and limb by thousands of American soldiers has been in vain? Frankly, that’s up to us.

If their sacrifice has finally awakened us to the evil being done in our names, I say that sacrifice has not been in vain.  If the expenditure of so much blood and treasure has finally, at long last, MOTIVATED us to combat the REAL threat to our nation, their sacrifice will not have been in vain.

The REAL threat to our nation is a war that CONTINUES day after day after day to sacrifice our soldiers and drain our treasury to enrich the war profiteers.

It’s up to us.  As we enter into this election season, let every vote, every campaign contribution, every letter to the editor, every fax to Congress, every conversation on every street corner throughout the land reflect our commitment to END THE WAR NOW. And let us vow never again to acquiesce to those who would wage war for profit, at the expense of our health, our welfare – indeed, our very souls.

One day there’ll be a memorial commemorating the sacrifice of our Iraq war veterans. Let it be inscribed, "They died for the renewal of America.  They did NOT die in vain."

OK, so it wasn't my candidate, and probably not yours either.  As to the video, I swear I'll post it as soon as it's available.  I can't fucking wait.