In other news...

Barack Obama was here in town for a campaign rally. I fear he may be getting in over his head. Here's his speech opposing the Iraq war from Oct. 2002 (if Wikisource is to be believed, and I have no reason not to believe.)

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Barack_Obama's_Iraq_Speech

I supported the war in Iraq in 2002. I'm still not sure whether the now-mainstream belief that the war is a mistake is correct. The justification of the war was obviously wrong, the violence in Iraq is not going to end soon, and I doubt that sending more troops will have the stabilizing effect that Bush and company say it will. Still, I think the President is doing what he can to pursue the war's military objectives. Politically, he is getting hammered, but the Democrats in Congress are getting hammered a bit, too. Neither the Pres. nor Cheney have to worry about re-election, which I thought in 2004 would be a good thing. Now I'm not so sure.

I prayed for Iraq to open up to Christian influence in 2002, and I still pray for an opening of Iraq. I'm now sure that that kind of thing ought never be attempted at the tip of a sword, more sure than I was in 2002. I looked for a justification for the war that synched with my own beliefs in 2002, and I found one. I think I was wrong. I think Jesus preached peace and turning the other cheek, and we have forgotten that part of following Jesus in this country. We put our Presidents on pedestals, only to knock them off when they turn out to be human. Yes, President Bush has put the country in a terrible position, and he has been the driving force behind the war in Iraq (with Cheney right there at his side). I think the war in Iraq may have seemed like a necessary evil to this evangelical President, but now it seems more like a misguided adventure.

Is it a dumb war, as Barack Obama said? Was the President fooled into making this mistake? Or did he purposefully misunderstand the nature of the Middle East and of war in general? I know he deliberately led the country in this direction, and many of us willingly followed. I feel dumb now, but I didn't think it was a dumb war then. Maybe Sen. Obama had it right back then. I hate admitting I was wrong, but I'm slowly coming around to that opinion.