Posted on 08/30/2013 12:58:07 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie
Good afternoon. Let begin by saying that although this has been billed as an anti-war rally, 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 saw the dead and dying across the fields of Europe; he heard the stories of fellow troops who first entered Auschwitz and Treblinka. He fought in the name of a larger freedom, part of that arsenal of democracy that triumphed over evil, and he did not fight in vain.
I don't oppose all wars.
After September 11th, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this Administrations 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.
And I know that in this crowd today, there is no shortage of patriots, or of patriotism.
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 Perles and Paul Wolfowitz and other arm-chair, 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 Roves 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 thru 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. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity. He's a bad guy. 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, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, 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 US 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 Queda.
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 today.
You want a fight, President Bush? Let's finish the fight with Bin Laden and Al Queda, thru 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 the UN inspectors can do their work, and that we vigorously enforce a non-proliferation 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 in 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.
0bama opposes fracking to get at American oil.
Where are the U.N. inspectors' reports?
Yeah. How's that worked out for the Libyans, Egyptians and Saudi's on your watch, Hussein?
Why are we Al Qaeda's Air Force now, Barack?
What is our Clear Rationale? "Squirrel"?
The count of 0bama's "Coalition of the Willing" matches Palin's assessment of him:
ZERO!
0bamaCare failures?
Poverty Rate? Up.
Median Income? Down.
Corporate Scandals (Freddie, Fannie, etc.)? You bet.
Unemployment?
Benghazi?
IRS?
NSA?
I'd say a good bombing campaign is a better distraction for 0bama than anything else on the horizon.
So why back Al Qaeda in Syria, who do those things you said you would fight?
What have we got here, 1 week since the gas was used?
Saddam broke U.N. resolutions for 13 years before Bush acted.
Who is rash again, Barack?
Why should American servicemen only be used to favor the ideological agenda of your Sunni brethren everywhere, Barack?
IIRC, that entire paragraph was a lie, from start to finish, including the words "and" and "the."
I hadn’t seen the speech before. I have not spent much time studying the Holocust, and it has been noted by others that the Soviets, not the Allies, liberated Auschwitz.
I went to the Wikipedia for information on Treblinka, which was located in what is now eastern Poland, so no Allied troops were anywhere near its location. Even if they somehow had been, the Nazis had demolished the camp in 1943.
Obama just makes it up as he goes.
Its hilarious listening to the media toads trying to make distinctions between what Obama is doing today vs. what he and his fellow leftists were saying when Bush did it.
Note the reference to armchair and weekend warriors.
Well, this administration has no worries about armchair generals. The closest anybody in Obama’s inner circle has gotten to the military is to get them to hold an umbrella.
As a former weekend warrior who got activated for OIF, I guess I should be miffed at that reference, but I think O is so clueless he was using the phrase in the athletic sense, the only warfare he is acquainted with.
Well, at least there are no chickenhawks now, just effete academics who have been so busy dismantling and undermining the US military that they haven’t taken the time to learn that lobbing a few missiles and bombs doesn’t intimidate people who have been hardened by the barbarity of civil and religious warfare.
Obama and crew are not in any way prepared to go all the way, and are going through the motions due to concerns about perceptions, with no anchor in policy. We are preparing to throw a punch with our feet in the air.
Even our oldest allies want no part of this folly.
Lord help the USA. The electorate didn’t, and now those who voted for the huckster pitching freebies for the liberal faithful are about to see what happens when a phony tries to play a game that’s for keeps.
Here’s an interesting article about the wartime experiences of Gramps.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Obama-s-grandfather-s-war-service-revealed-3228354.php#page-1
I think O exaggerated them some, but he certainly served honorably. He was pulled out of Europe shortly before Germany surrendered for retraining as infantry for the invasion of Japan.
Thanks! I did not know that. I’m sure Stanley made him very proud....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.