The right reasons for opposing a war

As Barack Obama's inauguration nears, it's a good time to reflect on one of his finest moments.
He made a speech at a rally in Chicago, in the fall of 2002, eloquently proclaiming his opposition to the Bush administration's war plans.
He expressed morally correct reasons for his opposition to the invasion of Iraq, reasons that weren't centred around the shallow calculation of whether U.S. forces could "win" and get out quickly.
"What I am opposed to," he said, "is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne. ...
"That's what I'm opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics."
The speech was not perfect. Obama seemed to give little thought to the war's inevitably huge Iraqi death toll, as if Iraqi lives weren't so important to him. Nor did the speech give much indication that he cared about the implications of the U.S. signaling (once again) that invading countries is OK.
But still, Obama opposed the Iraq invasion at a time when many supposedly "good" people in America were eager to see it happen.
Contrast that with those today who have grown opposed to the Iraq occupation or how the Bush administration managed it. Those people are, as Scott Ritter has said, not anti-war but anti-losing. They're now opposed to the war only because it is costing their country too much. Which is a shallow, morally bankrupt position.
While we're at it, contrast Obama's position then, back in 2002, with Hillary Clinton's support for war.
And Canadians may contrast it with the support today's leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and today's Prime Minister voiced in 2002-03 for an invasion that the United States had no moral authority to conduct.
When Obama assumes office Tuesday, he'll be walking on moral high ground to which Michael Ignatieff, Stephen Harper and other Iraq war supporters can lay no claim.