What exactly are Obama's antiwar credentials?

He's constantly saying that he's against the war and this weekend said that if he's the candidate, the Republican nominee will not be able to say that Obama supported the war.

Does Obama want us to believe that he never voted to fund the war? Does he want us to believe that voting for war funding is somehow an act of opposition to the war?

We know where Hillary stands. She'll end the war, except for the troops guarding the embassies, the troops training the Iraqis and the troops fighting al Qaeda in Iraq. In other words, she won't end the war, despite telling us that she will end it, while explaining exactly how she won't. So...she's irrelevant to me.

Why should I support Obama? Do any of his supporters here want to take an honest try at these questions?

How many times has he voted to fund it since he was sworn in as a Senator?

mentioned that he did not support THE IRAQ WAR, specifically.

Said before he made it to the Senate, where he proceeded to vote for every Iraq war funding bill except the most recent.

I'm just wondering how he (or his supporters) square that with his funding of the war.

Only Kucinich and Richardson have said flat out they would have the troops out in a year.

If the war is the issue, none of the 'frontrunners' measure up.

...at a time when it was a very popular war. A lot of Democratic Congress Critters, including Hillary, voted for the IWR.

how many times did he vote to fund the war?

Hell, I can say I'm against eating at a certain restaurant, but if I keep going there, well...you know.

regarding "credentials". But here are some quotations.

He spoke out against the invasion of Iraq in 2002. Actually paved his way to the Senate doing that.

The looming invasion, he said in 2002, was an ill-conceived venture that would "require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences."

(Hopes and Dreams, Steve Dougherty, p. 19-20)

"It's simply not true that Saddam was providing weapons of mass destruction to terrorists. This incursion into Iraq has resulted in a situation in which terrorist recruits are up. It's been acknowledged, now, by the Pentagon, that the insurgents active in Iraq are far higher. Terrorist attacks worldwide are the highest in 20 years. The notion that somehow we're less vulnerable in the US as a consequence of spending 200 billion dollars and sacrificing thousands of lives is simply not borne out by the facts."

"Iraq was a preemptive war based on faulty evidence-and I say that not in hindsight, or Monday-morning quarterbacking. Six months before the war was launched, I questioned the evidence that would lead to us being there."


(Il Senate Debate, Oct. 26, 2004)

in Congress during the war, except maybe Dennis and Ron Paul. And I believe both of them will end Iraq, leave some troops in, and that's OK with me--I trust their judgment. It's Iran that I'm concerned with, on Hillary's end. She seems more likely to cave to neocon war pressure to me.