All Quiet on the Western Front

The United States is knee-deep in at least three international military conflicts at the moment — in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.

American lives are being lost. Innocent civilians are being killed. Several of the engagements appear to be primed for protraction. The wars are expensive in other ways, too.

At least since the stormy 1960s, whenever America has gotten involved in deadly combat on foreign soil, large crowds of peace-promoting citizens have gathered in Washington and other cities to demonstrate against war.

It happened in 2007, when tens of thousands congregated on the National Mall and heard actors Sean Penn, Jane Fonda and Danny Glover speak out against President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. It happened in 1991, when throngs rallied against U.S. involvement in the first Gulf War. And it has happened more than a dozen other times since the March on Washington for Peace in Vietnam in 1965.

Now, despite the U.S. military's concurrent and costly entanglements, the National Mall is quiet and the streets of Washington are pretty much protester-free.

The lack of noise and the apparent nonchalance raises the question: Where have all the protesters gone?
~ from Whatever Happened To The Anti-War Movement? by Linton Weeks ~

You know, I've been asking myself this question for some time now. From 1990 - 2007, I both was an organizer and participant in more anti-war protests than I can count. There was an energy in the peace movement and, even during those times when this energy waned, me and my mates were out on the street corners of Pittsburg, KS, Salem, OR, Olympia and Aberdeen, WA.

As I have detailed at some length in this space, I have retired from the demonstration and protest biz because I can no longer handle the social anxiety of large crowds. In all honesty, I didn't handle it all that well WHEN I was involved, but my dedication to peace and nonviolence pushed me into the streets anyway.

But why aren't others -- particularly the younger generation -- in the streets today? The US is involved in war on so many different fronts. There certainly is enough outrage to go around!

If I were to venture a guess, I think the lack of current protests are due to three reasons. First, with war constantly in the news, Americans have become numb to it. It is like it's no longer a big deal. The mainstream media has played a big role in engendering this apathy by presenting war in a more sanitized fashion.

For those of us old enough to remember, the coverage of the Vietnam War often was gruesome. It was not uncommon on the nightly news to see dead bodies as well as soldiers and civilians who were bleeding and maimed. These sorts of images are no longer ubiquitous and so many viewers no longer understand the true carnage that war entails.

A second reason why I would guess people aren't in the streets is that past protests and demonstrations weren't half as effective as we had hoped they would be. Those of us who protested the Iraq Wars know that the military is still there, though we don't hear about it as much. It is hard to feel as if all of our efforts made much of a difference when 50,000 troops remain in Iraq to this day.

Add to this the thousands of US troops in Afghanistan and Pakistan PLUS our brand new war in Libya and it seems like all the countless hours were for naught. For all the bodies we put on the streets over a period of 15+ years, US foreign policy remains shoot first and ask questions later.

But I think the biggest hurdle in jump starting the anti-war movement is that we are so under attack in this country. It seems like everywhere we turn, there is a new battlefront. There is the war on unions. The war to dissolve the social safety net. The war on immigrants and people of color. The war on the environment.

The activist community is suffering from battle fatigue. There are too many holes in the dike and not enough fingers to plug them.

It's the shock doctrine that is paralyzing us. We are so inundated with attacks and causes that we can't decide which to address first and so we stand there flummoxed as to what we can do.