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.
The consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable. We
may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense
of our freedom, and pay the wages of war. But we ought not –
we will not – travel down that hellish path blindly. Nor should
we allow those who would march off and pay the ultimate sacrifice,
who would prove the full measure of devotion with their blood, to
make such an awful sacrifice in vain.