For some reason this date was sticking in my mind, and I knew it wasn't just because of Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras or Super-Duper Pooper-Scooper Tuesday. Then my friend Vastleft from Corrente reminded me -- it's the fifth anniversary of the day the US was to lose any remaining credibility and moral high ground it still held at the UN. It was also the day that a lot of us said, "oh well, there goes any chance of a moderate-leaning, intelligent, articulate black man making a serious and credible run at the Presidency."
On 5 February, 2003, the US Secretary of State Colin Powell completely capitulated to his White House masters and knowingly lied to the United Nations to make a case for the United States invading Iraq. Five years later we're still there, where we've no right to be, occupying a country in a state of chaos and bloodshed. Our once-sterling (if not entirely deserved) reputation as cavalry to the world, riding in on great white chargers to right every wrong, is in tatters. Our citizens are less safe and less free than they've been in half a century, the divide between rich and poor greater than at any time since the Gilded Age, and the promise that America once represented has nearly been obliterated (as the last good Republican president warned might happen) in the hands of a few selfish, radical oilmen.
But we're humans, no more nor less than anyone else in this world, and so we harbor hope. It's going to take years to regain any shred of credibility and reputation, but it starts with hope, and with hard work. And it starts with a citizenry united to see that hope and hard work through. And so today I cast my vote in the Democratic primary for Barack Obama -- despite misgivings which I would have had no matter who was running -- because he's effectively conveyed hope better than anyone else out there. And because we have to start somewhere.
On 5 February, 2003, the US Secretary of State Colin Powell completely capitulated to his White House masters and knowingly lied to the United Nations to make a case for the United States invading Iraq. Five years later we're still there, where we've no right to be, occupying a country in a state of chaos and bloodshed. Our once-sterling (if not entirely deserved) reputation as cavalry to the world, riding in on great white chargers to right every wrong, is in tatters. Our citizens are less safe and less free than they've been in half a century, the divide between rich and poor greater than at any time since the Gilded Age, and the promise that America once represented has nearly been obliterated (as the last good Republican president warned might happen) in the hands of a few selfish, radical oilmen.
But we're humans, no more nor less than anyone else in this world, and so we harbor hope. It's going to take years to regain any shred of credibility and reputation, but it starts with hope, and with hard work. And it starts with a citizenry united to see that hope and hard work through. And so today I cast my vote in the Democratic primary for Barack Obama -- despite misgivings which I would have had no matter who was running -- because he's effectively conveyed hope better than anyone else out there. And because we have to start somewhere.
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