Saddle up the high horse

I was watching the series finale of ER, which was terrific by the way, and in the episode there was a patient who had been living with AIDS for 20 years. A thought struck me. What if we took the money we spend on the Iraq war for a week and instead spent it on AIDS research, or tuberculosis, or cancer. Say we spent that money for a good cause. Say we also found a cure for one of those diseases and then gave the cure free of charge to the rest of the world. Imagine the pride we as Americans could have knowing that our tax dollars contributed to the welfare of the world.

Anyway, that was just something I thought of. I'm sure it isn't a unique thought, or should I say, I hope it isn't.