They’re called “Team California,” and the team is made up of students from Santa Clara University and California College of the Arts. About 200 students from both of these California colleges have been working together to build a solar powered house for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon 2009.

The solar decathlon is a competition where college students across the world compete to build the best solar powered, renewable energy house. Right now there are 20 teams participating, and Team California is the only team from the U.S. west coast.

Since 2003 U.S. troops have been an ever-present force in Iraq. The purpose of the Iraq War was to overthrow Saddam Hussein and to establish democracy in Iraq, but it seems that all we have done is cause great destruction to the Iraqi people’s land and lives. Our invasions have ravaged their natural environment, and the people continue to struggle to find new homes, food to eat and properly sanitized water to drink. Since the U.S. is considered the richest country in the world, the least we can do is…