Obama's 2002 speech: Good judgment when it mattered

In 2002 Barack Obama made a speech that many have not read or heard that helps distinguish the candidate from Hillary. Here is his speech from 2002. Remember this was only 1 year from being attacked on 9-11 while the mood in the country was fear.

"Against Going to War With Iraq," by Barack Obama, Oct. 2, 2002


“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.”


Barack Obama, Oct. 2, 2002