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Barack Obama - October 2002
Speech
Against Going to War With Iraq
By Barack Obama
October 2, 2002
Posted 28/02/08 -- - -Good afternoon. Let me begin by
saying that although this has been billed as an anti-war rally,
I stand before you as someone who is not opposed to war in all
circumstances. The Civil War was one of the bloodiest in
history, and yet it was only through the crucible of the sword,
the sacrifice of multitudes, that we could begin to perfect this
union, and drive the scourge of slavery from our soil. I don’t
oppose all wars.
My grandfather signed up for a war the day after Pearl Harbor
was bombed, fought in Patton’s army. He saw the dead and dying
across the fields of Europe; he heard the stories of fellow
troops who first entered Auschwitz and Treblinka. He fought in
the name of a larger freedom, part of that arsenal of democracy
that triumphed over evil, and he did not fight in vain. I don’t
oppose all wars.
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.
So for those of us who seek a more just and secure world for our
children, let us send a clear message to the President today.
You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s finish the fight with
Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, through effective, coordinated
intelligence, and a shutting down of the financial networks that
support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves
more than color-coded warnings. You want a fight, President
Bush?
Let’s fight to make sure that the UN inspectors can do their
work, and that we vigorously enforce a non-proliferation treaty,
and that former enemies and current allies like Russia safeguard
and ultimately eliminate their stores of nuclear material, and
that nations like Pakistan and India never use the terrible
weapons already in their possession, and that the arms merchants
in our own country stop feeding the countless wars that rage
across the globe. You want a fight, President Bush?
Let’s fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle
East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own
people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and
inequality, and mismanaging their economies so that their youth
grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the
ready recruits of terrorist cells. You want a fight, President
Bush? Let’s fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil, through
an energy policy that doesn’t simply serve the interests of
Exxon and Mobil. Those are the battles that we need to fight.
Those are the battles that we willingly join. The battles
against ignorance and intolerance. Corruption and greed. Poverty
and despair.
The consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable.
We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in
defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war. But we ought
not — we will not — travel down that hellish path blindly. Nor
should we allow those who would march off and pay the ultimate
sacrifice, who would prove the full measure of devotion with
their blood, to make such an awful sacrifice in vain.
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