At the end of 2002, rare was the American politician who denounced publicly the invasion of Iraq by George W. Bush. It must be said that at that time, rather curiously, 60% of Americans were certain that Saddam Hussein was behind the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Today, three of these Cassandras [Note: a term used by the author to denote those willing to speak publicly against the aforementioned political climate] are on the cusp of occupying the highest levels in a [potential] future White House:
-Barack Obama, the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. He declared in September 2002 in regards to Iraq, “I am not opposed to all wars; I’m opposed to dumb wars.”
-Al Gore, former vice president et Nobel laureate, and who has declared his support for Obama. “This troubling war that we are about to bring to Iraq potentially could seriously damage our capacity to win the war against terrorism and weaken our ability to lead the world into the next century,” he declared the same month.
-Jim Web, former Secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan, Democratic senator from Viginia, and potential vice-presidential candidate under the Obama ticket, for his part affirmed in the Washington Post that, “the question is not whether or not we must put an end to Saddam Hussein’s regime, but rather if the United States is ready to physically occupy the territories of the Middle East for the next 30-50 years.”
The several other American politicians that dared to stick their necks out at that time were Congressmen Ike Skelton a Democrat from Missouri; Nancy Pelosi the Speaker of the House; Congressmen Jon Sprat, a Democrat from South Carolina, and Senator Russ Feingold from Wisconsin.
One can bet that [the aforementioned people] have good odds to occupy senior posts in a future Obama administration. That is if he is elected.
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