Short Writing Assignment #4: Blog 4

Obama Flexes Anti-Iraq War Credentials
November 20, 2006
ABC News
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2006/11/obama_flexes_an.html

There has been many opinions about the war in Iraq since the very beginning. There has been lots of people that have criticized Bush’s decision to go to war. Senator Barack Obama also gave his opinion, that he publicly opposed the Iraq war before it began. Knowing that he could possibly be a Presidential candidate in 2008, Obama made it clear to potential voters what he thought of the war. He stated that, "Month after month, and then year after year. I’ve watched with a heavy heart as my deepest suspicions about this war’s conception have been confirmed and exacerbated in its disastrous implementation." It is interesting that all the other potential Democractic presidential candidates all voted to authorize the use of force. This is something that is making Obama different from all the other potential candidates. I wonder if this will help or hurt him when running for President in 2008? Obama also went farther to criticize those who have "proposed escalating this war by adding thousands of more troops." He said, "we would only be putting more of our soldiers in the crossfire of a civil war." I do agree that we do not need to put more of our troops in the line of fire. We have clearly sacrificed to many of our men for the country of Iraq. But was it a mistake that we went to war to begin with? I wonder if this question will ever be answered.