Larrick: End one war, don’t start another

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BY DON WALTON / Lincoln Journal Star

After biking across a wide swath of Nebraska, Steve Larrick is convinced people are ready to end the war in Iraq.

“I was impressed by what I heard in the coffee shops,” he says.

Now, Larrick hopes to convince Nebraskans he’s the 2008 Senate candidate who is committed to do it.

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Steve Larrick (LJS file)

Steve Larrick (LJS file)

But first he needs to get their attention, and that’s an uphill task for an underfunded Green Party candidate matched against Republican Mike Johanns and Democratic nominee Scott Kleeb.

“We don’t have the money and resources to get the message out,” Larrick says as he sips a cup of coffee on the dock at The Mill in downtown Lincoln.

The challenge for a candidate who gets little — and sometimes no — media coverage is daunting.

“Until we get media attention, it’s hard to get the resources.”

Larrick argues he’s the only candidate committed to end both the war and what he calls the occupation of Iraq, the only one clearly opposed to a military attack on Iran, the only one who is ready to redirect national resources to develop renewable energy.

With oil and corporate power calling the shots and American taxpayers paying the bill, Larrick says, “we are socializing the costs of the war and privatizing the profits.”

While war costs balloon and the national debt soars, big oil companies are raking in record profits, Larrick says. And, he says, they’re already lining up for contracts to exploit Iraq’s oil resources.

Meanwhile, Larrick says, the Bush administration moves toward a possible military attack on Iran despite the fact that a recent National Intelligence Estimate concluded Iran has halted its nuclear weapons program.

“We need to sit down with Iran and talk candidly about our differences,” Larrick says.

“The U.S threat of war is wreaking havoc for the American consumer and making oil companies richer than ever.

“Four-dollar gas is just the tip of the iceberg if we attack Iran. “We can reduce the price of gas by reducing the threat of war.”

Larrick biked from the tiny Nebraska hamlet of Henry (pop. 162) on the Wyoming border to Scottsbluff, then rode the Cowboy Trail from Valentine to Norfolk for four days.

Later, he biked from his home in Lincoln to Omaha.

The road time encouraged him, he says, leading him to believe Nebraskans want to move beyond Iraq.

“We need a strong defense, but we need to redirect our resources away from war.”

What’s needed, he says, is investment in a renewable energy infrastructure, education, health care and an economy that sustains good-paying jobs.

“The Green Party believes it is time to really get serious about investing in our people,” he says.

“We need to build a new economy for the 21st century.”

In the process, Larrick says, the United States finally can get serious about global warming.

“It’s a huge problem,” he says, “and to deny it is a criminal approach to the future. We are enabling short-term profiteering at the expense of the future of our planet.”

Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or at dwalton@journalstar.com.