This Administration’s choices have benefited largely some very powerful families and the rich of America, while the divide between rich and poor has become wider as the Middle Class has been consistently under attack. Sure enough, the existence of a robust Middle Class is not ideal for fascist undercurrents in Democratic nations. Poverty reduces a citizens reach and impact on the whole of society, and all that is left to do is reduce Civil Liberties, rig election machines, and degrade the Judicial, and then the imposing of power agendas on the whole can proceed unobstructed.
This Administration’s idea of “America” is a metaphor for the rich and powerful, to be measured up by the quantity of stock options in their portfolio, a vision in which the common American is a useful tool, a useful worker bee, a useful foot soldier. Where is the wisdom in those who have supported over time this President’s agenda? Where is Senator Clinton’s wisdom in supporting this President? Did Barack Obama show wisdom and vision on the eve of this monstrous mistake which was the war in Iraq? What are some talking points we can use to help share with others what Barack foresaw back in 2002?In reality, his words are convincing enough:
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.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.
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.
Did any of Barack Obama’s rivals for the ‘08 Presidency show the kind of vision and wisdom he did?
Let me quote Rudy Giuliani. He said about George W. Bush at the 2004 RNC in NYC:
There are many qualities that make a great leader but having strong beliefs, being able to stick with them through popular and unpopular times, is the most important characteristic of a great leader.
Rudy Giuliani, Zell Miller, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John McCain, and Hillary Clinton have supported George W. Bush and his “strong,” beliefs. Those beliefs were not founded on a wisdom that benefited the common American, as all can see now.
It is now up to this congress and to the next President to reverse the damage these fascist forces have inflicted upon this nation at home and abroad.
Giuliani’s words well apply to Barack Obama who opposed the war in Iraq when most Americans were under the spell of this Administration’s media manipulation. While everyone was infected by Condoleeza Rice’s “mushroom cloud” virus, and Dick Cheney’s treasonous lies on “Meet the Press” regarding Saddam’s WMD cache, Barack Obama’s wisdom cut through the fog.
I want a President with wisdom and vision, and that uses those qualities for the good of America as a whole, not for a fascist, oligarchic vision of America.
Barack says it best:
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.
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.
Experience is no good unless it leads to wisdom. Judge Barack based on his wisdom, not on the amount of time he has been in Washington!
(quotes from Remarks of Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama Against Going to War with Iraq, October 26, 2002 - Link)
(If this post has been of any help, consider contributing $10 at Link - It will take serious fundrasing for Barack's message to reach every ear in this nation.)
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