Eight Months of Obama's Diplomacy

On the War in Iraq
The U.S. President shares fist bumps with U.S. troops in Baghdad in April 2009. In October 2002, then Illinois state senator Obama spoke out against those advocating war in Iraq: "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 ... weekend warriors in the [Bush] Administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne."

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