Speech

BARACK OBAMA'S
2002 SPEECH
AGAINST THE IRAQ WAR |


October 2002 Barack Obama's
2002 Speech Against the Iraq War
Illinois State senator
The Federal Plaza in Chicago
Complete Text
I standbefore 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 ofmultitudes, 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, foughtin 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 anddestruction, 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 armsmyself 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 byRichard 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 inhardships 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 fromcorporate 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 onpassion, 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.......