What were you doing 5 years ago today?
While many of us were marching in the streets in the biggest anti-war demonstrations seen since Vietnam, our DC Democrats were falling all over themselves to support Bush's misguided war in Iraq. How sad. Iraq will cost us over a trillion dollars and thousands of lives, and yet when it counted most, our DC Democrats folded. They can claim that all the intelligence said that we had to go to war, but as Dick Durbin points out in this video, the classified intelligence shown to Senate Democrats (including John Edwards) clearly cast doubt on the need to rush to war.
As a native Texan, I'm still somewhat in shock that the nation promoted our dumb-ass Governor to the White House. While it was difficult to stop the Bush machine here in the red state of Texas, I thought that surely the rest of the nation would see through this bullshit. Even if the average voters had been tricked by Bush's slick advertising campaigns, surely our DC Democrats would stand up against this madman? Right?
Wrong.
The 2002 Iraq vote will go down as one of the worst mistakes in American foreign policy history, and now in 2008, some of those same DC Democrats want us just to forget about that historic vote.
We all know that Hillary Clinton was trying to act "tough" in preparation for her inevitable run for the White House. Unfortunately, she cared more about her own political aspirations than doing what's right and standing up to a popular president.
I'm also still dumbfounded that Edwards didn't just vote for the Iraq war, he co-sponsored it. To his credit, John Edwards has now admitted that he was wrong. So if our only choices in 2008 were Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, then I'd take the former North Carolina Senator. At least he's learned from his mistakes and criticized Clinton for recently voting for the Iran resolution. Has she learned nothing about this Bush administration?
Luckily, we have another option. Our ideal candidate for President in 2008, in my humble opinion, would be a candidate who was right from the beginning on Iraq. Considering that this was a foreign policy blunder of epic proportions, it'd be nice to have a candidate like Howard Dean who wasn't afraid to take on the DC establishment.
That's why I'm supporting Barack Obama. Five years ago today, he found the courage to stand up for what's right and gave the now famous speech in which he called Iraq a "dumb war".
Edwards and Clinton want us to forget about 2002. It's all in the past, they say.
Sorry. I can't forget. I was marching in the anti-war protests. I was actively supporting Howard Dean precisely because of his bold stance against the DC establishment. I'm ready for change.
I don't support Obama on every issue. But no politician is perfect. On the most important issue of our time, Obama got it right. Therefore, I trust him to be America's ambassador and help clean up the mess Bush has created. We are at a critical time in history, and we need a leader that the rest of the world can respect. Obama has the necessary charisma and judgment to make America great again.