Barack Obama on 10/2/22: "What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war."

[RiverStone]

Remarks of (then) Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama against going to war with Iraq; delivered on October 02, 2002 at an anti-war rally in Chicago.

After September 11th, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this administration's pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such tragedy from happening again. I don't oppose all wars. And I know that in this crowd today, there is no shortage of patriots, or of patriotism.

What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.

What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income - to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression. That's what I'm opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics. Now let me be clear - I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity. He's a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.

But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history. I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.

complete text of speech here: http://www.barackobama.com/2002/10/02/remarks_of_illinois_state_sen.php


I wish he could still hear himself...

[Selatius]

1. Want to watch something funny from the 1980s dealing with Afghanistan?

Watch the ending of this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvQjDvnPpCk

[d_b]

2. lol gold

[leftstreet]

4. Perfect

Nice one

[RiverStone]

5. Yep. Ancient tribes - no surrender.

Russia could not end it - I highly doubt we can either. Even with all our technical advances in war making, the terrain remains virtually impassable.

[frazzled]

3. I think he still hears himself

That speech from way back when set out the difference between 'dumb' wars and other military efforts. He says from the beginning that he supported the "administration's pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such tragedy from happening again." That is precisely what he was focused on tonight. Saddam Hussein did not pose a threat to our national security. Obama believes that elements in Afghanistan and western Pakistan do. Obama is nothing if not consistent. If you listen to him carefully.

[RiverStone]

6. Sen. Obama would have opposed what Prez. Obama said tonight

If Shrub were to make the same speech we heard today, albeit less eloquently, I firmly believe that (then) Senator Obama would oppose it.

I was so elated when he won the presidency, I cried tears of joy with my friends. With all due respect frazzled, I don't believe President Obama is being consistent at all.

What I heard tonight tells me he has changed. I did not vote for more war, I voted for more change.

[frazzled]

8. He hasn't changed: he spoke throughout the campaign about turning to Afghan.

and finishing the job there. I am having trouble understanding why so many here seem surprised, when it was the focus of countless statements by him throughout the campaign.

Maybe you didn't believe he really meant it. I did, because what I learned about him as my senator, and from people I met who had worked with him earlier (a Univ. of Chicago law professor, for example), is that he is dead serious and deadly pragmatic. I always take him at his word, and I honestly don't think there is any political calculation here. He said he wanted to finish this war right as we withdrew from Iraq, and that is what he tried to outline tonight.

[TexasObserver]

7. Recommend.