Legal Commentary

A Defense Of Obama On Iraq

By Big Tent Democrat

Barack Obama was right and courageous to oppose the Iraq Debacle in 2002. No one should ever try and diminish that. What he did once he became a Senator, well that is a different story. But his 2002 speech struck the right chord with me. The estimable Susie Madrak cites a NYTimes article where some are quoted as taking issue with one passage of the speech:

[Obama] was also careful to emphasize that there were times when military intervention was necessary. . . . Mr. Obama’s refrain about supporting some wars perplexed some in the crowd.

An event organizer, Carl Davidson, recalled that a friend “nudged me and said, ‘Who does he think this speech is for? It’s not for this crowd.’ I thought, ‘This guy’s got bigger fish to fry.’ At the time, though, I was only thinking about the U.S. Senate.”

I do not care who it was for - it was absolutely right in my opinion. It was the view expressed by Wes Clark and Howard Dean in 2003. It is the classic Democratic liberal view of foreign policy and national security. Most importantly, it was and is right.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 11, 2008 (boomark / email).