Sunday, November 29, 2009

Where are All the War Protesters?

(I don't venture into politics too often, but felt like I should address this particular issue. FYI - I am politically neither a Democrat nor a Republican. Instead, I stand with the U.S. Constitution. I suppose this makes me an historic conservative. Put me in the Ron Paul camp.)

Our previous president (for clarification - George W. Bush) began our involvement in two wars that, in my opinion, should never had been fought. Thousands of American soldiers have died for what seems to be little gain. Beyond that, many more Iraqi and Afghani citizens have perished. As an added insult, our reputation as a freedom-loving, human-rights-protecting country has been severely damaged.

During the former president's tenure, war protesters appeared around the country on a fairly regular basis. It seemed that every few months another big protest would be held in Washington. These protesters were angry and felt free to tell people about it.

One of the prongs of our current president's (for clarification- Barack Obama) presidential campaign was that he would bring our soldiers home soon. He had to say this because all the other Democratic party candidates were saying the same thing. There seemed to be a contest between the candidates to see who could get the troops home the quickest.

Once elected, President Obama had to deal with the mess that President Bush left him in Iraq and Afghanistan. In order to keep his campaign promises, President Obama should have begun bringing many more soldiers home before now. He certainly would have my full support in doing that (he gets little support from me in other areas, but I digress). However, the president instead continues to be influenced by the military "powers-that-be," and now intends to increase the number of our troops in Afghanistan even though there is absolutely no evidence that this will help at all.

Here is my question: Where are the war protesters now?

If the president is strongly considering making an announcement this week about increasing troops in Afghanistan, then why isn't there a huge anti-war protest going on right now in Washington? Where are all the people who so vehemently used to be against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

It appears that we have run into more than a little hypocrisy on the part of the most war protesters. If a neo-conservative Republican president is responsible for our involvement, then they protest. However, if a liberal Democratic president keeps us in the wars and increases our involvement, then this is accepted as tolerable by the majority of protesters.

It is obvious that more than simple war-involvement is in play here. Apparently war is acceptable if the president agrees with the protesters in theory but not in practice.

Will the protesters personal like for the president continue to stand in the way of their stance against the wars?

I wonder how long they will accept what they said they would never accept.

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