As the majority of Americans are growing more skeptical about the benefits of a heavy troop presence in Afghanistan, peace groups are struggling to organize a complacent opposition.
Two new polls reaffirm Americans’ opposition to the Afghanistan war, especially an expansion of the war. A poll by Quinnipiac says that just 38% of people polled want President Obama to increase troops to Afghanistan. An a poll conducted by the Associated Press says half of the respondents oppose a troop increase.
But public opposition does not resemble the polls. At an anti-war march in Washington, D.C. Monday, only 300 people showed. That is a far cry from the hundreds of thousands who turned out for Iraq War demonstrations over the years during the Bush administration, even when public opinion polls suggested that war was popular.
Madea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, acknowledges that activist participation is low.
“The majority of people are against the war in Afghanistan and yet we don’t have significant numbers of people out on the streets,” Benjamin said.
At its height, Code Pink had more than 200 local chapters across the county. Now, Benjamin says only 90 are active.
Activists cite a number of reasons for the low activists numbers. One is President Barack Obama.
“In the lead up to the Obama campaign, a lot of local groups lost their members because they were focusing on the election,” Benjamin said.
Many anti-war activists supported candidate Obama. He better represented the anti-war movement than candidate John McCain.
Adrienne Kinne is on the Board of Directors for Iraq Veterans Against the War. She says people were so focused on Iraq that when President Obama announced a troop withdrawal from Iraq, people fell complacent.
“It took the wind out of the sails of the anti-war moment,” Kinne said.
Michael McPherson is President of Veterans for Peace. He says people are weary of endless opposition that lasted through the entire Bush Presidency.
“People are tired of being angry. People want to be hopeful and want to work towards a goal rather than just being angry and in opposition,” McPherson said.
Furthermore, many considered the war in Afghanistan as the necessary war. Some anti-war groups didn’t even oppose it. Iraq Veterans Against the War members were split on Afghanistan until they came out with a united policy of opposition just this year.
“There’s a lot of confusion and a lot of people have been hit with this idea that this is the good war that this war is linked to our security,” Kinne said.
But as polls suggest, public opinion is changing on the war in Afghanistan and activists say that as President Obama contemplates an expansion of the war, now is perfect time for activists to reengage. But, they say their tactics have to change and that anti-war protests can no longer be a campaign of opposition, instead they must be a campaign of alternatives.
Rebecca Griffin says they have had to frame their message to their members so they are supportive of President Obama. She said she is telling members that Afghanistan protests is a way to “bolster him to make the right decision to support him in making a smarter foreign policy and to keep him from making a decision that will damage him and his presidency.”
The same is true with his members of other groups. Michael McPherson with Veterans for Peace says people don’t look at President Obama as destructive, like they might have with President Bush. So the focus can’t be on the person.
“These things don’t change that much from one person to the next. So let’s be angry about the policy so we can consistently demand policy change,” McPherson said. “Let’s look deeper than the personalities.”
Protests and vigils will continue in some towns through this week. They also urge their members to call their members of Congress and the White House.
For an audio version of this story, visit FSRN.org.
