Who opposed the invasion of Iraq?

By F. Ellsworth Lockwood

Based upon my interactions with friends here in eastern Washington, for a long while I felt very isolated becausae of my position opposing the attack on Iraq. In this blog I will begin to explore who opposed the war, when, and perhaps why. At the top of my list, of course, is Presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

"In October 2002, before being elected to the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama made a speech opposing the Bush Administration's plan to go to war in Iraq because he felt it was an ill-conceived venture which would "require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undermined cost, with undetermined consequences." Source: http://obama.senate.gov/issues/iraq/index.html

I will "seed" this blog with a few insightful people who registered their opposition early on, but if you are aware of others who should be included, please add them as "comments."
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Top British clerics opposed the invasion of Iraq by the United States prior to the United States' 2003 attack.

I saw the article at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/14/1026185141810.html

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United States Catholic Bishops opposed the action:

On September 13, 2002, US Catholic bishops signed a letter to President Bush stating that any "preemptive, unilateral use of military force to overthrow the government of Iraq" could not be justified at the time. I saw it at http://www.usccb.org/bishops/iraq.shtml
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U.S. Senator Russ Feingold exposed the President's rationale as falacious: Feingold opposed the invasion of Iraq, and spoke of the White House's "continually shifting justifications" for the war. "In terms of the justifications ... and in terms of the mission and the plan ... Mr. President, the Administration's arguments just don't add up, " he said.

http://www.senate.gov/~feingold/speeches/02/10/2002A10531.html

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A minority of Christians, claiming to base their opposition on scriptures, have mangaged to put together a web page.

I saw it at http://believersagainstthewar.org/
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The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church

"The most public and serious condemnations of the invasion of Iraq came from Pope John Paul II and other top officials at the Vatican."

He is credited by what one might consider the least likely of allies -- a group of atheists! I saw it at http://atheism.about.com/od/popejohnpaulii/a/iraqwar.htm