Whatever happened to the antiwar movement?
Remember all those marches, all those placards, those giant puppets and loud displays of moral outrage?
It’s vanished! Gone! Evaporated like morning mist!
At one point, millions were marching in the streets to end the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, people all over the world, and then – nothing!
Never in the history of politics has a movement retreated faster and more completely – but in this case, it was a voluntary retreat, an act of self-abolition.
Why, you ask. Read below...
The Phony Anti-War Movement
“Once Obama was safely in the White House, the anti-war movement was all but dismantled, having served its partisan political purpose.”
The U.S. anti-war movement was always a lot less than it appeared to be. At its height, activists claimed that the sheer weight of visible public opinion would shake power relationships to the very foundation. But it turned out that many of the anti-war legions were actually comprised of partisan Democrats who only opposed Republican wars. “For the phony anti-warrior, imperialism with a Democratic face, is just fine.”
Did Obama's Election mean the End of the Anti-War Movement?
"The anti-war movement in the US may have become more anti-Republican than antiwar since 2003, say U-Michigan researchers..."
Since 2003, the antiwar movement in the United States has had much to protest with Americans fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya, but the movement—which has dropped off sharply the past two years—may be more anti-Republican than antiwar, says a University of Michigan researcher.
A new study by U-M's Michael Heaney and colleague Fabio Rojas of Indiana University shows that the antiwar movement in the United States demobilized as Democrats, who had been motivated to participate by anti-Republican sentiments, withdrew from antiwar protests when the Democratic Party achieved electoral success, first with Congress in 2006 and then with the presidency in 2008.
"As president, Obama has maintained the occupation of Iraq and escalated the war in Afghanistan," said Heaney, U-M assistant professor of organizational studies and political science. "The antiwar movement should have been furious at Obama's 'betrayal' and reinvigorated its protest activity.
"Instead, attendance at antiwar rallies declined precipitously and financial resources available to the movement have dissipated. The election of Obama appeared to be a demobilizing force on the antiwar movement, even in the face of his pro-war decisions."
These are the challenges that the antiwar movement faces. Given the results of this study, how can those opposed to the ongoing wars still motivate people to take action? In what ways can the peace movement make the true costs of war real to more Americans, who seem to be worried about everything but war?
Nearly two-thirds of Americans now say that the war in Afghanistan hasn’t been worth fighting, a number that has soared since early 2010. Where are their leaders? Where are the senators and congressmen pushing for withdrawal? Where are the organizations? Could a new, non-Democratic antiwar movement do to President Obama what the mid-2000s movement did to Bush? And the $64,000 question — though these days it would have to be at least a $64 billion question — could a new anti-war movement of Progressives hook up with Libertarians in a Stop the Wars revolt?