Let's clear something up.
President Obama has been right about what I believe is the central question of our time: peace and war.
He was right about Iraq when practically all the other Democrats - I mean the "name-brand" Democrats - were wrong.
And don't let them tell you otherwise. It wasn't just a matter of getting the facts wrong - whether Saddam Hussein had dangerous weapons - or not. It was about the doctrine of pre-emptive war. Should the United States declare war on another country because we think they might prove to be a danger or menace in their region?
The answer from "W" and Cheney and the Neo-Cons and, again any number of big-name Democrats was "yes."
Obama stood alone and said "No."
To me, that's a helluva difference and I'm not going to forget that he, practically alone, was on the side of reason and restraint when the others were all dancing in a Conga-line to a nasty, unnecessary evil war that made Iraq into the cradle of terrorism it is today.
Think this doesn't matter? Think this is, as young people say today, just "history?"
Think again.
Today, the President and his negotiators are working like hell to find an alternative to war with Iran. They are being pelted with all the brickbats the hawks can muster. There is nothing, it seems, the hawks will not oblige if it means undercutting and humiliating the people who work for peace.
Anyone with a brain and common decency knows that a war with Iran - and don't kid yourself, that is what the hawks want - could be unpredictable and unending. Do you think the leaders in Tehran are going to sit there and take it on the chin if they are attacked? Do you think Hezbollah will sit idly by and let its patron be defeated and held up to worldwide ridicule?
And what then? Will the hawks slink back into their think tanks and other warrens of refuge, yield up the op ed pages, and wait out the storm while others die, while people pay the price of their keyboard bravado, these Westmorelands of the 800 word-count, these Pattons of the opinion page?
Listen, I say, and remember. The people who talked us into Iraq are out there talking us into a war with Iran. Listen and learn. They're at it again. They want WAR. You can already see the light of their campfires.