I grew up a child of the Vietnam era. That was an era where anti-war protestations were an everyday way of American life.They were on TV. In the streets, in the arts, everywhere. You saw the message of the anti war protestors all the time. They had a lot of fodder to work with. The Vietnam War was the first war to ever really be on TV regularly. As such, it was the first war to be brought into the homes of America. The result was as drastic as the result was in the Civil War when photography was available for the first time, and the true images of war were brought to the people. That changed a lot of attitudes about wear, and fueled the anti war movement. With Vietnam, this happened even more, for every day at 6 and 10 PM ( here in the Central Zone) you saw what happened in the war that day on the news. There was always film of dead and mutilated bodies and the other horrors of war, replete with narration from Walter Cronkite or someone like that. This galvanized the anti war crowd like mad. They used this to make their points.The pictures and film of the things like the Vietnamese children running down the path screaming as their skin burns of from napalm and the American soldiers just stand by watching, were used by all of them everywhere. They did indeed illustrate the savagery of war. No matter how much they were used though, they didn't stop the war. It went on and on for many years. You still had the protestors going on about the terrible things that were being perpetrated by America in Vietnam and shit. Most everything that was said in terms of protestations were about what was going on over there. The body bags of the soldiers killed there coming home were more stark reminders of this. The soldiers came home to another world, one where they were not honored too well. The anti war protestors were really ruling the land in a lot of ways. They were very prevalent in the media, which just kept on playing the war footage and then the people protesting it. The Pentagon was vilified for feeding the war machine with the taxpayers money for something that was happening on the other side of the world where no one really knew where it was anyway. Then the war was ended by a Republican administration that was trying to get past the deeds of Richard Nixon with the American people so that they could stay in power. It didn't work and the Vietnam war ended on an ignominious note for America.
After that, there was no war to protest until the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Many of the old Vietnam protestors came back out for that one. Once again, they were using TV images to decry what was being done. Once again, it was all about things that were happening on the other side of the planet. It was a lot like Vietnam again, for the arguments were basically the same. The Pentagon was immoral; for feeding the war machine again, and American boys and girls were once again being shipped to the other side of the Earth to be in harm's way again. So much of it was the same because it once again was totally focused on what was happening somewhere else on the planet. That was always the emphasis in the past of any anti war movement, what was happening elsewhere. They always decried boys being taken from here to go there and fight and die and shit, but they mostly talked about "over there" , wherever that tended to be at the time. What was going on here at home was not discussed too much. Since the theaters of war were always elsewhere. The discussions and protests were always centered around elsewhere. Bombings and POWs and murders and slaughters were always over there. Here at home life was the same. Not this time around though.
This time around in wartime, everything is truly different. The theaters of war are not just elsewhere but they are right here in America. The entire thing started with acts here in America. The support for the military reaction overseas this time around has been overwhelming. Even people that are usually opposed to anything like that are not against it this time. Everyone seems to feel that this was asked for by some very impertinent people that only understand one thing and that is violence and death. So their voices are more muted than usual on that one. They have found other causes however. This time around, the causes are right here in America. I see the protests taking place in the city and they look the same as always. Some of the old faces are still there. The marchers chant the sane slogans. But the target is different. Now, they are protesting what the government is doing here at home. The main thrusts of the protests seem to be the anti terrorist bills that are being passed right now. The main protests seem to be centered around how these new laws are going to restrict personal freedoms and liberties and shit like that. We are hearing about how the government has no need to use sweeping things like Carnivore to go through millions of e-mails just to find one that has one objectionable passage. About how the Pigs do not need any more powers to increase their abilities to search and seize things, and how detainees have certain rights and all that. We are hearing very little about the innocents being killed by bombings this time.This is something that has not been seen in anti war protests in a long time, if ever.
I have been wondering why. Is it really because the anti war types are that concerned about what is going on here for a change, or because social reformers have used this situation to promote their causes? I think that it's some of both. I do feel that many of the anti war protestors are also social reformers and vice versa. But they do tend to be two different agendas. One usually focuses on acts that are perpetrated on others by the US military and the other usually focuses on things perpetrated on the American people by the American government. In this war, many feel that they are one and the same. I am not so sure. I think that in this instance that both sides are using the other to help themselves. The government freely admits that this war is not one that will be totally fought overseas somewhere, but right here at home on many different fronts. To do this in the way that they feel that they should, the government has said that they need to give sweeping new powers to themselves, the Pigs, etc. They claim that these are necessary tools to fight this war and win. This gives the social reformers things to talk about. The see these powers as things that can ultimately be used against the people unnecessarily. This is true of all governmental powers, so they don't want to see them increased any more than absolutely necessary. The government saying that they need to do so in this time of warfare is just fueling things for them. At the same time, what they are saying that they need these powers for is purposes of warfare, and that gets the anti war types going. Anything that is for the purposes of war is something that they do not like. So the two causes dovetail. That sounds good, but will anything really be able to come out of all of this?
On the surface, it does look like these new laws that have been passed can severely curtail freedom in America. However, they are not as iron clad as they were originally, so that is not a certainty. Only time will tell if this does come to pass. So the social reformers may not have much of a cause. The overseas warfare part of all of this is not really anything to get too excited about. It is mostly being done at various Taliban camps and schools and shit like that, and there is minimal collateral damage to civilians. So little in fact, that we are able to get the entire names of everyone that is being killed by errant US missiles in this one, and we are seeing individual shit about all the American casualties in this war, all three of them. Other than a few shots of destroyed buildings and distraught dudes going through the rubble of them and some kids all bandaged up in a hospital somewhere, there has not been the regular shots of carnage that accompanied Vietnam, and to a lesser extent, the Persian Gulf War. So there is not a whole lot that the anti war people can point to as the horrors of war. What happened in America on September 11th was far more horrible than anything that we have seen from America in retaliation. So there is not a whole lot to point to in order to get the American people turned against anything. This could conceivably fizzle things out for the anti war protestors. There doesn't really seem to be a whole lot to gain for either side, because this is such uncharted territory for America. No one really knows just how this is going to play itself out. This war may be fought with bombs and planes and tanks and shit, or it may be fought by Pigs and spies and clandestine operations and skullduggery. Maybe one more than the other, maybe not. Nobody knows, and when no one is sure of what is really going on, it is kind of hard to effectively protest it. So that is why the anti war stuff this time around seems rather feeble or unclear. Maybe there is something to protest against, maybe there isn't. Only time will tell.
America is saying that it is going through a profound time of learning and self-exploration from all of this. These are not just words, but reality all across America. When something like this comes along, it makes protestations hard to do, not out of cowardice, but out of uncertainty. Yes we are now in a very bad situation, but it is one that was basically forced upon America. It is a mess that needs to be cleaned up. A mess that was brought on by the way that things were in the past. Once it is cleaned up, the opportunity is there for things to change. If they do, then things like this could possibly be prevented in the future. The protestors on both the anti war and social reform sides realize this. So instead of protesting shit, bridge building may just be the way to get things changed this time. Rather than violent protests and civil disobedience, perhaps dialogue really does have a chance once this mess is straightened out. That is why I think that the anti war scene is different this time around. I hope that it does not disappear, for it has many valid points, no mater what the situation is. Rather, I hope that it can make itself an integral part of the changed American society that is what everyone says is going to come out of all of this. I think that would be better for everyone. That is why am glad that it is not being ruthlessly suppressed by the Pigs this time around either, as was the case in the past. I think that this time around, American government just might be more willing to listen to what the anti war side has to say, and that would be the best of everything.