Why no protest marches?
One of the great mysteries of the disastrous Iraq War is why there has been no mass protest movement, no great marches on Washington, D.C., demanding that the U.S. pull out. Between 1969 and 1971, there were several large demonstrations against the Vietnam War in Washington and numerous more large and small elsewhere in the country. if you lived in Michigan then, as I did, and couldn't get to D.C., you could always get to Ann Arbor.
That hasn't happened so far in the Iraq War, although MoveOn.org is trying to get a protest march organized in Washington for Jan. 27. Despite the incredibly low percentage of Americans who still support the Iraq War, big protests are largely absent. One reason, almost certainly, is that there is no draft, no threat of death in combat hanging over the heads of young men in college or out. Young men in college had draft deferments through the end of the 1970-71 academic year (and could keep them four years if they started in college that year), but you always knew the risk was only postponed. Students could and were drafted when they finished college or left early. That line in "Animal House" where Dean Wormer informs John Belushi and the others that he's notiufying their draft boards that they're available for immediate Army service was no joke.
So there were a lot of young men--and women, too--with great motivation to protest the war. it's a lot easier to round up 250,000 people for a march on the White House when there's self-preservation involved and not just personal belief. Not impossible, just more difficult. The American liberal left was at the peak of its powers in the late 1960s. Today, finding a politician to call himself a liberal may keep you busy for awhile.
Another reason for the lack of protest may be the relatively low death toll among U.S. forces in Iraq compared to Vietnam--3,000 vs. 58,000. In Vietnam, there could be 3,000 killed in 12 weeks in 1968, the year of the Tet Offensive and the highest U.S. casualties. Many more wounded troops are being saved in Iraq compared to Vietnam, although their degree of recovery varies.
So whatever the reasons, there aren't many average Americans in the street protesting the Iraq War, and no future leaders like John Kerry arising from the masses.. And that's a shame, because the protests in Vietnam had a real impact on the Congress, the American public, and probably even President Nixon. When the Mall is filled with people who are deeply and profoundly opposed to your war, it has to be important.