It's a beautiful day in Austin, Texas!
Everybody come out and join the fun, bring your dog and enjoy a sunny stroll up Congress Ave. in support of peace, starting at 3:30pm today at City Hall.
As we all know, Sen. Obama took a bold and principled stand against Iraq during 2002 while all the other Democrats were voting for Bush's Iraq war.
Here's Obama speech from October, 2002...five months before the Iraq invasion:
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 fought in
the name of a larger freedom, part of that arsenal of democracy that
triumphed over evil.
I don't oppose all wars. After September 11, 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. 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.... 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...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 U.S.
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.
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...we
vigorously enforce a nonproliferation 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.
