Matt Ortega

Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois) launched a new video on the fifth anniversary of the disastrous Congressional vote authorizing President Bush to use force against Iraq.

The video was part of an e-mail alert sent to his list just moments ago, which included a veiled barb at Democratic front runner, New York Senator Hillary Clinton.

Many Republicans and even a few Democrats refuse to admit the mistake they made five years ago. And now we’re seeing history repeat itself as the drumbeat builds for a war with Iran.

Once again, some politicians are more afraid of appearing weak than they are of being dragged into another war.

Watch the video and hit the pavement this Saturday in various locations around the country.

Leaders from around the world are in New York this week to attend the General Assembly meeting at the United Nations. Just the presence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the country sparked outrage in the U.S. (Rick Perlstein remembers Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s visit to the U.S., and how the politics of fear turned the right into “bed-wetter nation.”) Ahmadinejad’s appearance at Columbia University at the invitation of the school only drenched the flames with lighter fluid.

In his speech before at the U.N. summit, Ahmadinejad declared the Iranian nuclear issue “closed” and declared that Iran would defy Security Council demands to seize uranium enrichment. Representatives from the U.S. and Israel were noticeably absent during his remarks. (According to the Los Angeles Times, American diplomats walked out in protest.)

The Los Angeles Times piece noted President Bush’s address was nearly Iran-free:

President Bush, in earlier remarks to the assembly, was nearly silent on the topic of Iran, and adopted a conciliatory tone far from his confrontational stance here five years ago when he argued his case against Iraq. He mentioned Iran only once, among a list of “brutal regimes” that he said denied their people fundamental rights, along with Belarus, North Korea and Syria. (ed. note: Are Belarus and Syria September call-ups in the “Axis of Evil”?)

French and German leaders railed against the possibility of a nuclear Iran.

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John McCain piped up about the recent visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Columbia University. The Arizona senator blasted the school for allowing the foreign leader on campus, but not the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC).

Columbia’s president, Lee Bollinger, who gave a scathing introduction to Ahmadinejad during his appearance at the university’s Manhattan campus Monday, has voted to not allow ROTC to return to Columbia as a campus institution. The reason, he has said, is because of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell — the government’s policy toward the service of gays and lesbians in the military.

“To not allow the ROTC … to try to recruit or discuss issues with young men and women on their campus is just disgraceful,” McCain said.

It has often struck me as odd, and hypocritical, of Republicans that claim the U.S. is at war for freedom and the liberties that we hold so dear, and then seek to stifle speech of political opponents, foreign and domestic.

Ahmadinejad’s appearance provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and added value, in calling out the Iranian president’s idiotic statements of the last several years to his face, rather than through the newspapers and from the safe confines of television studios.