HEART BEAT: Can You Hear Me Now?

Five years ago, March 20, 2003, we woke up to the news that the United States had invaded Iraq.  It wasn’t exactly a surprise.  Congress had, months before, given President George Bush permission to do what he wanted.
In October of 2002, the Senate, in fact, voted 77-23 to support the war, following a House vote of 296-133.  I remember 2002.  I don’t sign a lot of petitions, but I signed the one members of our community sent up to Washington to ask our senator to vote against the war.  The appeal was eloquently worded, but President Bush was more convincing by far. 
During the debate on the Senate floor, Senator John McCain of Arizona cautioned against Saddam Hussein’s move to increase his stock of weapons of mass destruction.  “Giving peace a chance,” Senator McCain said, “only gives Saddam Hussein more time to prepare for war on his terms, at a time of his choosing, in pursuit of ambitions that will only grow as his power to achieve them grows.”
Not to be outdone by a Republican, Senator Clinton of New York said, “It is clear ... that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East, which as we know all too well affects American security.”
Senator Clinton went on to say, “Now this much is undisputed. The open questions are: what should we do about it? How, when, and with whom?”
I’m big on fact-checking.  But who am I?  There were knowledgeable people in 2002 who tried to convince Congress that there were no weapons of mass destruction, not on the scale feared, in Iraq.  Not everybody in power believed there was an imminent threat.
In Chicago that month, Barack Obama, a young Illinois state senator, spoke against the war.  He said he did not oppose war in principle, just this one in particular.  He said, standing on the steps of the Federal Plaza in Chicago, “I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power…. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.”
“But I also know,” Senator Obama continued, “that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors…and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.”
Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia appealed to Congress. ““Let us stop, look and listen,” he said.  “Let us not give this president or any president unchecked power. Remember the Constitution.“
It’s 3 a.m., and something’s going bump in the night.  It could be the Easter Bunny.  It could be another war.  Who do you want answering that phone?