It Hurts But Don't Stop

Michael Kinsley asks if there’s ever before been a war that so many people disapproved of but so few wanted to stop?

Today’s antiwar cause doesn’t even have a movement to speak of, let alone an agenda. It consists of perhaps 47 percent of the citizenry — the ones who voted for John Kerry — who are in some kind of existential opposition to the war but aren’t doing much about it and aren’t very clear about what they would like to see happen. Meanwhile, American soldiers die by the hundreds and iraqis — military and civilian — by the thousands in a cause these people (and I’m one of them) believe to be a horrible mistake.

I have to say I agree with him. Nonviolence.org is a top ranked antiwar publication according to all-knowing Google, and after nine years we’re a safe bet, yet our annual donations from readers barely cover the relatively miniscule internet bill. With the exception of a few Democratic Party front groups, peace groups are not being supported. Organized opposition to war is limited to large rallies that assign all the blame on war on particular politicians rather than upon our own suburban S.U.V. gas guzzling lifestyles.

The average peace-espousing tax payer sends much more money to the Pentagon than to grassroots peace groups (anywhere from 40 to 49 percent of taxes support the military). One needn’t break any federal laws to support peace groups to the same extent one supports the Pentagon but it’s not happening. Grousing about presidential party politics and token donations to play-it-safe foundations is about as far as most people go. It’s pretty depressing really. Money won’t create a culture of peace on it’s own, of course, but the lack of funding echoes the parallel lack of real commitment.

Kinsley’s article found via the excellent Picket Line.