[Peace-discuss] Moribund antiwar movement

[C. G. Estabrook]

	March 29, 2009
	AMERICANS DIVIDED ON AFGHAN WAR; DEMOCRATS OPPOSE IT

CNN - The American public has been wary about the war in Afghanistan, according 
to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted in February.

Last month, Americans were almost evenly divided between those who support the 
war and those who oppose it, the poll showed, with 47 percent in favor and 51 
percent opposed.

Opposition to the war in Afghanistan is more muted than opposition to the war in 
Iraq, but it's not so muted among Democrats. Two-thirds of Americans overall 
oppose the war in Iraq, but 64 percent of Democrats oppose the war in 
Afghanistan. . .

Only 31 percent of Americans believe the United States is winning the war in 
Afghanistan. Fifty percent believe the United States is winning in Iraq -- the 
highest number in at least five years. But Americans still want to get out of Iraq.

Progressive Review - The Obama administration's planned U.S. troop commitment in 
Afghanistan - not counting mercenaries - is roughly where the U.S. was in 
Vietnam in the early summer of 1965.

In May 1965, a Gallup poll found that 48% of Americans approved of the 
government's handling of the conflict, almost the same as approve our war in 
Afghanistan. But the opposition to the Afghan conflict is twice as strong: 51% 
opposed in constrast with only 28% opposed to the war in Vietnam at that early 
stage.

Yet despite the much stronger opposition to the Afghan war, the Vietnam 
opposition was dramatically more apparent. Wikipedia reports:

- March 24, the anti-war Students for a Democratic Society attended the first 
teach-in, organized by some teachers, against the war at the University of 
Michigan, attended by 2,500 participants. This was to be repeated at 35 campuses 
across the country.

- April 17, the SDS and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a civil 
rights activist group, led the first of several anti-war marches in Washington 
DC, with about 25,000 protesters.

- The first draft card burnings took place at University of California, Berkeley 
at student demonstrations in May organized by a new anti-war group, the Vietnam 
Day Committee, where a coffin was marched to the local Draft board office, a 
teach-in was attended by 30,000, and president Lyndon Johnson was burned in effigy.

First anti Vietnam war demonstration in London outside the U.S. embassy. May 1965.

- Protests were held in June on the steps of the Pentagon, and in August, 
attempts were made by activists at Berkeley to stop trains carrying troops from 
moving.

While the draft was clearly a big factor in the stronger protests, it is also 
true that Americans have generally become more passive in the face of wrongful 
government actions.

http://prorev.com/2009/03/americans-divided-on-afghan-war.html