The Antiwar Movement Is Still Active

The Protests You Aren’t Seeing -- DoD Buzz

The antiwar movement is active across the country, protesting against the U.S. involvement in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, but mainstream news organizations barely report on it anymore, according to a report by a Harvard University press watchdog.

Some 1,400 Americans have been arrested in anti-war demonstrations since 2009, reports John Hanrahan in Harvard’s Nieman Foundation Watchdog, but the national and local press almost never covers them, effectively silencing what Hanrahan argues should be a major voice in the national debate over the wars.

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My Comment: Of course the main stream media is not going to cover anti-war demonstrations. But if a Republican wins the White House in 2012 .... and the wars are still continuing .... I expect a quick return of this coverage.

Where Are All The War Protestors?

Photo: Reuters

Where Have All The War Protesters Gone? -- Salon

The largest demonstrations ever have largely dissipated, even as we've launched new wars. Why a movement sputtered.

The outrage that greeted the run-up to the Bush-Blair Iraq war debacle generated what must have been the largest antiwar rallies and demonstrations in the history of the world. Sometimes in subzero temperatures, millions of marchers in New York, London and elsewhere took to the streets to interrupt the roar of self-righteous crypto-imperial bravado, to barge through George Bush's strutters' ball and its fevers of fantastical, deceptive and self-deceptive claims about Saddam Hussein's danger to the United States and Washington's promise to parachute democracy into Saddam's stricken land. In the well-chosen words of one London sign, the marchers were "Shocked, Not Awed."

Then the marches stopped.

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My Comment: Bush, Blair, and others are mentioned directly in this article .... but not Obama. OK. What is my take on why the anti-war movement has disappeared .... to put it bluntly, the tap of money to these groups was quickly closed after their favorite son was elected. But if President Obama is defeated in 2012, do not be surprise if the anti-war movement will all of a sudden re-materialize.

More U.S. Soldiers Are Fighting In Wars Now Than Before Barack Obama Took Office -- A Commentary

Change In Leaders, Not Wars -- Danny Westneat, Seattle Times

Did you know there are more U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan now than before the antiwar candidate, Barack Obama, took office...

Did you know there are more U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan now than before the antiwar candidate, Barack Obama, took office eight months ago?

Joe Colgan, of Kent, knows. He lost his son Ben in one of these wars. So it's no stretch to say he is painfully aware.

"I guess it was naive, but I thought things might be getting a little easier by now," Colgan says. "It isn't — it's getting harder. Everything's still headed in Cheney's direction. It's confounding."

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My Comment: For the past 8 years I continuously argued with my friends and other bloggers that much of the anti-war movement was politically driven to put pressure on a Republican administration that was dedicated to fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan than being a critic of the war itself.

It has been 8 months since President Obama's inauguration ..... and my critics have disappeared.

Am I angry .... yes. I am also disappointed because I was hoping that my critics were right.

The war in Afghanistan is now going to enter a new and dangerous phase .... and unlike Iraq where there was always a realization that the war was going to end one day .... Afghanistan does not give that impression at all.

The antiwar movement has disappeared for now .... but as the war continues to grind on in Afghanistan, I expect the antiwar movement to morph into something that is less influenced by the Democrat Party, and more true to their principles on why they are antiwar.

At least I hope so.

Anti-War Voices Lose Influence -- A Commentary

From Real Clear Politics:

Will the last activist who hopes the antiwar cause will re-emerge as a central tenet of the Democratic Party please turn out the lights on the way out the door?

Little evidence exists that any antiwar movement is alive, well and influencing policy in this country.

Certainly no voice for it is coming from Barack Obama's White House. In fact, Obama has been pretty consistent in jerking-around antiwar crusaders, beginning with last summer's vote as a U.S. senator for a federal surveillance law and its provision shielding telecommunications companies that cooperated in warrantless wiretaps - a law he previously opposed.

The only sound coming from the left at the time was a momentary backlash from the blogosphere.

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My Comment: This article has a good point .... the antiwar has no one to go to if President Obama fails to meet their demands.