Mail & Guardian

50 years ago in August 1963, Dr King, the Baptist preacher and civil rights leader, drew the largest crowd the country had witnessed as he delivered the rousing call for racial equality that reverberates to this day. Barack Obama, was voted in as President of the United States in 2008 on an anti-war mongering ticket. Five years on, the USA is still in a similar position as it was during the Bush years. Obama is now the leader of a nation about to launch military action in Syria, not the outspoken anti-war champion of a mass civil rights movement. It seems a contradiction that Obama speech to celebrate "I Have a Dream" speech on a day dominated by rumors of war. An armed conflict with the Syrian government, even of limited duration, was never part of Obama's dream.