What Kind of Change?
by James Glaser
February 14, 2008

I'm not all that sure I want Barack Obama, deciding what changes our country should make in the next four years. I do think it is time we worked on our country, but Obama wants to double the amount of foreign aid we give to other countries. You know what? A lot of the money we give away goes in the pockets of the despots and dictators we back in third world countries. Saddam Hussein made a lot of money off our foreign aid. Oh, but that was back when we thought he was the good guy.

Here is a change, but not the kind of change I want. Barack Obama wants to expand the size of our military. We already spend way more than any other country. Depending how you count our military spending, we come very close or possibly we spend more on our military than the rest of the world combined.

Here is an example of what Barack Obama wants to do when he is elected:

USA Today:
Obama: Double foreign aid, expand military

Democrat Barack Obama said today he wants to double foreign aid to $50 billion by 2012, and focus on helping "the world's weakest states" improve health, education and business opportunities. In return, he would ask those countries to build democratic institutions, honest police forces and a free press.

The proposals are part of the Illinois senator's mid-day foreign policy speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He also wants to increase the size of the military, strengthen NATO, negotiate a global ban on production of highly enriched uranium and plutonium and take other steps to reduce the nuclear threat.

Even though he talks about change, do you really think any new president will be able to change much? Most of what candidates talk about is pie in the sky when it comes down to reality

Mr. Obama has gotten $197,950 in donations from employees of Chicago nuclear power company Exelon Corp. since 2003, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The senator represents Illinois, the state with the most nuclear reactors.

Some things never change in politics. Money can buy any candidate. Somehow, I don't think new nuclear power plants are the kind of change I want. We still have no place to store all nuclear waste we have made in the last fifty years, but we know that storage facility has to be safe for at least 10,000 years. To me, that is a tough one. This from the Dallas Morning News:

Mr. Obama is in the opposite camp.

"We should explore nuclear power as part of the energy mix," he said during last summer's CNN-YouTube debate. "Nuclear plants can cut greenhouse gas emissions," he says.

Let's face it, in the political world, if somebody gives you a couple hundred grand, you are going to start pushing their product.

So, Barack Obama might be talking about change, but when all is said and done, nothing changes, and Barack Obama is just like every other politician. He has his hand out, and if you fill it with money, he will be your friend. More foreign aid, bigger military, more nuclear power, and promises, promises, promises about whatever he thinks you want to hear.

Post Script:

I wrote this about Barack Obama because it was so easy to find the quotes I used. I could have written the same about Hillary Clinton or John McCain. One thing all of these candidates can agree on is that we have to change the size of our military. Every one of them thinks we need to increase the number of troops we have, and that we have to increase the amount we spend on the Pentagon. Man, they all scare me.

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