Why isn't there an antiwar movement like Vietnam? Must read --

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

"Where's the outrage?" An insightful essay by Gary Kamiya, here: http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2007/01/16/antiwar/

"So now we wait for the end. The man who led America into the most disastrous war in its history has run out of tricks, out of troops and out of time. It is no longer a question of whether George W. Bush's presidency will officially die, but when -- and how many more Americans will have to die before it does.

We find ourselves, almost four years into the Iraq war, in a very strange situation. What do you do when it has become obvious that the leader of your country is -- there is no kinder way to put this -- a delusional fool? And that his weird fantasy war is hopelessly and irretrievably lost? Apparently, you just wait. The Democrats are raging and ranting, but they will not cut off funds. Still crippled by their fear of being labeled "soft on national security," the majority party will watch the end from a safe distance, like survivors who quickly paddle away from a doomed ship to avoid being pulled down in the suction when it goes down." ...

And he includes this poem by Brian Turner, called "2000 lbs," about a suicide bomber and a soldier:

A flight of gold, that's what Sefwan thinks
as he lights a Miami, draws in the smoke
and waits in his taxi at the traffic circle.
He thinks of summer 1974, lifting
pitchforks of grain high in the air,
the slow drift of it like the fall of Shatha's hair,
and although it was decades ago, he still loves her,
remembers her standing at the canebrake
where the buffalo cooled shoulder-deep in the water,
pleased with the orange cups of flowers he brought her,
and he regrets how much can go wrong in a life,
how easily the years slip by, light as grain, bright
as the street's concussion of metal, shrapnel
traveling at the speed of sound to open him up
in blood and shock, a man whose last thoughts
are of love and wreckage, with no one there
to whisper him gone.

Sgt. Ledouix of the National Guard
speaks but cannot hear the words coming out,
and it's just as well his eardrums ruptured
because it lends the world a certain calm,
though the traffic circle is filled with people
running in panic, their legs a blur
like horses in a carousel, turning
and turning the way the tires spin
on the Humvee flipped to its side,
the gunner's hatch he was thrown from
a mystery to him now, a dark hole
in metal the color of sand, and if he could,
he would crawl back inside of it,
and though his fingertips scratch at the asphalt
he hasn't the strength to move:
shrapnel has torn into his ribcage
and he will bleed to death in minutes,
but he finds himself surrounded by a strange
beauty, the shine of light on the broken,
a woman's hand touching his face, tenderly
the way his wife might, amazed to find
a wedding ring on his crushed hand,
the bright gold sinking in flesh
going to bone.

[Kagemusha]

1. The cold reason why? Because the US combattants are volunteers

Not that they all wanna fight RIGHT NOW, but they began their service as volunteers. That's why they're subject to the back-door draft as reserves or stop-loss victims or whatever. No one put a gun to their head, so to speak, to volunteer and sign the magic piece of paper. This is what keeps mass outrage low, in spite of confidence in the successful waging of the war, plummeting to the depths of hell.

[UTUSN]

3. Correcto-mundo: Because there is NO DRAFT. It's all SELF-INTEREST. n/t

[eallen]

4. Yep. Also the difference between 100 casualties a month and a 1,000.

From a significantly smaller population.

[illinoisprogressive]

2. It grew out of an age where there was no internet, no 24 cable, a draft,

From what i remember, the kids came from basic middle class. there was the new rock ' n ' roll movement 10 years earlier and alot of society changes. There was civil rights and women's rights. 3 leaders murdered.
The white male ruled everything and alot of resentment.
Youth was finding it's voice for the first time. The movement came out of the beatnik movement of the late 50s and early 60s.
There was many ingredients.
what is there now to light the match?
People have to have the most luxurious cars with a television in it for God's sake.
Money and luxury rule. And it would cut into shopping time. and there is the fact that it's uncomfortable and you have to wear unattrative clothes. You have to walk rather than ride. You have to be in the elements.
heaven forbid!

[citygal]

5. Agree with the previous replies.

It is because this particular war has not involved a draft, which would incite the populace for fear of being drafted. We are just sending our "volunteer" military back for tour after tour after tour. And now the government is removing any restrictions on tours for Reserves.

[tyedyeto]

6. Because we aren't allowed to see the body bags, coffins and pics

of those who have perished.

When that begins to happen DAILY, perception may change.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

7. K&R! that's VERY cool copy...

[Warren Stupidity]

8. There is an antiwar movement. DC 1-27-07 Do Join Us. NT

[tyedyeto]

9. But where are the more spontaneous protests nationwide?

Is a 'Kent State' lurking in the background? I hope not as I don't want to see more people die, but I just don't see the outrage about war as there was during Vietnam.

[Warren Stupidity]

11. Oh you want to get shot? I'm sure that can be arranged.

Where are the spontaneous protests? Well last week we had spontanteous protests all over this nation in our towns and cities as common citizens went out into the winter night to hold candlelight vigils to protest the criminal madness in washington. That was a spontaneous protest that was far beyond anything we could or did do in the late 60's and early 70's against the war. Of course you didn't read much about it, as the media is completely controlled by the same vile folks who think that the mess in Iraq is really working out just as planned. We can put 500,000 people in Washington DC, just like we did in the late 60's and early 70's and guess what? You won't see much at all about it unless the police end up shooting us, which is always a possibility seeing as how they show up to perfectly peaceful demonstrations in full body army ready to kill.

What is your excuse? There are tons of good excuses for not putting your sorry ass out in the steets. Demonstrations are stupid. Demonstrations are boring. Demonstrations are a waste of time. Demonstrations are full of people I don't agree with who want to free somebody I never heard of for some crime he didn't commit. I have other plans for 1-27-07, I just can't remember what they are. It is a long way to Washington DC and it is almost as far back again. I could go on. I have all of these excuses and yet I will haul my old and in the way ass down to Washington once again because I am fucking outraged and I cannot sit and do nothing.

How about you?

[mmonk]

10. Everybody is forgetting we had a broadcast press that showed people

the bloody details nightly on their TV tubes during Vietnam.