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Anti-war movement shrugs off setbacks
2007-05-30
It has been a tough couple of weeks for the U.S. anti-war movement, but Ohio military mom Rosemary Palmer believes she already can see the beginning of the end of the Iraq war. "People are frustrated with setbacks, I see that ... But I think it's just a matter of time now," said Palmer, whose son Edward Schroeder, 23, was killed in Iraq in 2005. Peace activist Cindy Sheehan's decision this week to leave the public stage -- days after Congress cleared Iraq funding without a timetable for pulling out troops -- dealt a one-two blow to anti-war groups who hoped the Democrats' takeover of Congress in the 2006 election signaled an imminent end to war. Liberal online activists attacked Democratic leaders for giving in to Republican President George W. Bush in the funding fight, while Sheehan, a leading voice against the war, ripped into Democrats for doing as little as Republicans to end it. Opponents of the war say Bush led the nation into the ill-conceived conflict based on false information about weapons of mass destruction, and argue the military should be focused only on finding Osama bin Laden, whose al Qaeda militant group carried out the September 11 attacks on the United States. Some 3,470 U.S. soldiers and Marines have died since the war in Iraq began in March 2003, according to Web site icasualties.org. Between 64,632 and 70,783 Iraqi civilians have been killed, according to a count by iraqbodycount.net, run by academics and peace activists. Palmer, who has spoken out with husband Paul Schroeder to humanize the war's cost, said a shift in public opinion against the conflict meant it was only a matter of time before troops come home -- even without Sheehan's high-profile help. Sheehan, who emerged after her son Casey was killed in combat in 2004, ended her campaign against the war on Monday with an angry blast at Democrats, Republicans and "cowardly leaders" she said had abandoned U.S. troops indefinitely. BETRAYAL Other anti-war groups were shaken by the Democratic decision to approve new war funds without a promised timeline to end the war. "We called what happened last week in Congress the Memorial Day betrayal. It was very painful," said Nancy Lessin, founder of the anti-war group Military Families Speak Out, in a reference to Monday's holiday to remember the U.S. war dead. But Lessin believes anti-war sentiment among both Republicans and Democrats has changed the outlook. "When we first started speaking out in November 2002, 70 percent of the people supported the U.S. invasion. We're now 4-1/2 years later and 70 percent say the war is wrong. That's a tremendous reason for optimism," Lessin said. A CBS News/New York Times poll released last week showed 63 percent of Americans believe the United States should set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq sometime in 2008. Republicans have privately warned Bush he may lose their support if a troop buildup does not show progress by September, when Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, presents a progress report. Alexander Lamis, a political analyst at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, said while anti-war activists and rank-and-file Democrats were no doubt dismayed by their loss in Congress last week, the growing Republican opposition to the war will force Bush to shift policy by autumn. "It'll be a new situation in September. Everyone has put all this emphasis on seeing progress in the report by Petraeus, or Republicans will go to the president and demand a dramatic de-escalation. Or they'll never get reelected in 2008," Lamis said. Any promise of change does little to soothe activist Lessin. "Each and every day they don't do something, that's four more American soldiers dying -- that's 500 more troops by October, and so many more Iraqis," Lessin said. "When you have the majority opposing the war and Congress funding it, obviously more needs to be done."
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