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Home Front: Politix
Iraq and Vietnam: contrasting protests
2007-03-21
America's current anti-war movement is resourceful and persistent, but often seems to lack the vibrancy of its counterpart in the Vietnam era when protesters burned draft cards, occupied buildings and even tried to levitate the Pentagon.
Refresh my memory. Did they succeed?
The biggest difference, say activists and historians, is the lack of a draft. Today's college-age youth face no threat of conscription to fight in Iraq, and campuses are more tranquil than during Vietnam. Comparing the two movements, Frida Berrigan suggested today's protesters perhaps have a broader sense of compassion and global awareness.
We're relevant. Really!
"A lot of the opposition to Vietnam was motivated by people's fear of going to war — maybe it was pretty self-centered," she said. "With this movement, maybe it's not as big, but it comes from a deeper place than 'Hell No, We Won't Go.'"
Those damn me-me-me baby boomers! What struck me about this article was the lengths they had to go to justify the movement and how they claim to be even more anti-war than those Vietnam era wankers.
Posted by:Spot

#7  Now campuses are quieter, and some liberal baby-boomer professors grumble that students are too detached. But 24-year-old Miranda Wilson, national campus coordinator for Peace Action, says such stereotyping is wrong and contends there is broad, though often low-key, opposition to the war.

"During Vietnam, people were questioning the government itself — it got a lot more coverage," she said. "What's happening now isn't so dramatically visible from the outside."

Democratic Sen. John Kerry, who returned from Vietnam combat duty to join the anti-war movement, said the lack of a draft "has greatly affected the level of activism and the intensity" of today's protest campaign.

"Right now, it's not changing a lot of minds," he said in a telephone interview Tuesday. But the anti-war movement is "putting some pressure on people as they run for public office. It will help change the makeup of Congress — it already has."

Posted by: Bobby   2007-03-21 17:30  

#6  Now campuses are quieter, and some liberal baby-boomer professors grumble that students are too detached. But 24-year-old Miranda Wilson, national campus coordinator for Peace Action, says such stereotyping is wrong and contends there is broad, though often low-key, opposition to the war.

"During Vietnam, people were questioning the government itself — it got a lot more coverage," she said. "What's happening now isn't so dramatically visible from the outside."

Democratic Sen. John Kerry, who returned from Vietnam combat duty to join the anti-war movement, said the lack of a draft "has greatly affected the level of activism and the intensity" of today's protest campaign.

"Right now, it's not changing a lot of minds," he said in a telephone interview Tuesday. But the anti-war movement is "putting some pressure on people as they run for public office. It will help change the makeup of Congress — it already has."

Posted by: Bobby   2007-03-21 17:30  

#5  tu3031 said: #4 Hey, how did Global Orgasm Day work out anyways?

Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I can honestly say I had a good time...

:-)


Posted by: FOTSGreg   2007-03-21 16:47  

#4  Hey, how did Global Orgasm Day work out anyways?
Posted by: tu3031   2007-03-21 14:05  

#3  That illustrative picture would be more appropriate positioned just above this one.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2007-03-21 13:41  

#2  It is precisely a greater "global awareness" - made possible in large part by the internet - that means so many Americans support fighting the Long War.
Posted by: Excalibur   2007-03-21 12:18  

#1  Unlike Vietnam, the Internet is going to allow the opposition to these bastards to be mobilized and ready for them. If they want trouble, they'll get it, and from people far more capable of dishing it out than they are. They were cowards then and they're cowards now.
Posted by: Mac   2007-03-21 08:20  

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