October 2, 2002, in the streets of Chicago, Barack Obama had this to say about the Iraq War:
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. (more after the fold)
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.
http://en.wikisource.org/...
In the meantime, back in D.C. my Senator, Hillary Clinton, was voting to authorize war with Iraq.
http://www.c-span.org/...
She ignored many pleas from her constituents, mine among them, not to do so. In fact, she decided to sign the authorization without even reading the National Intelligence Estimate about Iraq's ability to harm us before voting for Bush's war. Is that the kind of President we want answering the phone???? http://thehill.com/...
This is a very difficult vote. This is probably the hardest decision I have ever had to make -- any vote that may lead to war should be hard -- but I cast it with conviction.
http://clinton.senate.gov/...
This from the person that did not even read the NIE about Iraq's ability to attack us.
Was she fooled? I don't think so, I think she was doing what she always does, looking for a way she could stay politically safe. Even if she was the "victim" of Bush's misleading, it is apparent that it was an exercise in misjudgment. I ask you to read the words she herself spoke in which she supported outright untruths even though she ignored our own NIE which conflicted with Bush's justifications for war. The person that thinks she is the best capable of picking up that phone during a national crisis had this to say about authorizing the Iraq war:
Now, I believe the facts that have brought us to this fateful vote are not in doubt. Saddam Hussein is a tyrant who has tortured and killed his own people, even his own family members, to maintain his iron grip on power. He used chemical weapons on Iraqi Kurds and on Iranians, killing over 20 thousand people. Unfortunately, during the 1980's, while he engaged in such horrific activity, he enjoyed the support of the American government, because he had oil and was seen as a counterweight to the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran.....
...In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members, though there is apparently no evidence of his involvement in the terrible events of September 11, 2001.
It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East, which as we know all too well affects American security.
Now this much is undisputed. The open questions are: what should we do about it? How, when, and with whom? http://clinton.senate.gov/...
Don't forget that she's also the most experienced candidate. That experience influenced her judgment on the Iraq war resolution vote:
And perhaps my decision is influenced by my eight years of experience on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue in the White House watching my husband deal with serious challenges to our nation. I want this President, or any future President, to be in the strongest possible position to lead our country in the United Nations or in war.... http://clinton.senate.gov/...
Just for good measure, her wisdom and experience also allowed her to throw in this little Rovian tease linking 9/11 to the Iraq war:
And finally, on another personal note, I come to this decision from the perspective of a Senator from New York who has seen all too closely the consequences of last year's terrible attacks on our nation. In balancing the risks of action versus inaction, I think New Yorkers who have gone through the fires of hell may be more attuned to the risk of not acting. I know that I am.
http://clinton.senate.gov/...
I can't even register the rage I feel with that comment from my senator. All I can manage is a virtual gypsy-spit from a life-long New Yorker who lost a dear friend on 9/11.
For all her wavering and stammering now about her vote, she was pretty clear back then:
So it is with conviction that I support this resolution as being in the best interests of our nation. A vote for it is not a vote to rush to war; it is a vote that puts awesome responsibility in the hands of our President and we say to him - use these powers wisely and as a last resort. And it is a vote that says clearly to Saddam Hussein - this is your last chance - disarm or be disarmed.
Thank you, Mr. President.
http://clinton.senate.gov/...
Just for the effect of it:
Hillary Clinton, 2002 on the Iraq War Resolution:
Thank you, Mr. President
Barack Obama, 2002 on the Iraq War Resolution:
You want a fight, President Bush?
Many people believe that somewhere along the way Senator Clinton got disconnected from the people she represented. I've come to realize that a lot of us never had her number to begin with.
Many senators tried to amend the bill to reign in Bush, you'll not find my senator's name as author to any of those amendments:
Amendments Offered to the Senate Resolution
[edit] The Byrd Amendment
Affirmed that no additional constitutional authority was being ceded to the President outside of that necessary to deal with the threat posed by Iraq[citation needed]. Sponsored by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV)
Defeated 14 - 86.
[edit] The Levin Amendment
Urged to U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution demanding that Iraq grant immediate and unconditional access to U.N. weapons inspectors. Authorized U.S. use of force only if Iraq failed to comply with the U.N. resolution. Sponsored by Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI)
Defeated 24 - 75.
[edit] The Durbin Amendment
Restricted the use of force authorization to cover only an immediate threat from Iraq rather than a continuing threat. Sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL).
Defeated 30 - 70.
Although there were 500,000 people in the streets of New York City shortly thereafter, my senator was not amongst them. In fact, she was busy parroting the Bush administration's fear mongering despite our pleas, and had the nerve to say she was representing us as she did so. Please watch: http://www.youtube.com/...
Barack Obama was telling the truth from the beginning:
http://www.youtube.com/...
Here's what Barack Obama was saying, in the streets, with the people who were brave enough to oppose this war:
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 arm-chair, 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.
http://en.wikisource.org/...
This last part is directed to my Senator, but since she's not going to answer the phone for me or any of the other people she's supposed to be representing, I figured I'd post it here amongst people that are actually in touch with what has gone awry in our country:
It's no small thing, Senator Clinton, that you ignored us and sent our army to kill and be killed in Iraq. It may have taken us all of these years to unearth the truth that you yourself helped bury, but we're finally here. In 2002 my son made his own sign to hold at one of the protests we attended. He hoped as did I that you would listen, that you would help us. He wasn't even in high school yet, Ms. Clinton, and now he's in college, having spent all of his teen years learning about betrayal by his government. That is the lesson you gave the youth of your constituency, Ms. Clinton.
This is what his sign said: "The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. MLK" Well, I believe we're bending Ms. Clinton, and I don't believe you're going to keep us moving in the right direction. He called me today to make sure he had the right directions for getting an absentee ballot for the Presidential election. He still has hope that we can take our country back. It's really to our benefit that you continue to underestimate the force that drives people like us, senator.
That is the true genius of America, a faith in the simple dreams of its people, the insistence on small miracles. That we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door.... That we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution, and that our votes will be counted -- or at least, most of the time.
BARACK OBAMA, speech at 2004 Democratic Convention
You ignored our calls, Senator Clinton, no matter how much we tried to communicate with you. 500,000 in the streets of your city. Not a small thing, Senator Clinton. Here's a quote from one of my son's favorite bands:
You know we've told you before
But you didn't hear us then
So you still question why
No! You didn't listen again
You didn't listen again
"Lessons" by RUSH
So here I am Senator, posting diaries you won't read and telling off your auto-bot on the telephone...all the while supporting and hoping for the day President Obama takes office and your style of politics is obsolete.