The Anti-War Movement Is Spreading Rapidly in America

While the preparation of the Iraqi War becomes feasible, the anti-war movement is being ignited in America. The New York Times reported on the 30th that the influence of the anti-war movement, which was withered by the public opinion of supporting the war against Iraq, was spreading rapidly with the help of the anti-war demonstration by 200,000 people in Washington on the 26th. The scale of the demonstration was ten times more than the scale that was predicted by the host, ‘International Answer’ and it was the biggest since the anti-Vietnamese war demonstration.

▽The anti-war atmosphere ignited on October=The anti-war movement held in big cities in America on October 6th, a day before the President George W. Bush`s Public Speech that emphasized the necessity of the Iraqi War put vitality to the anti-war organizations. There were more than 100,000 people gathered in New York and San Francisco. A famous actress Susan Sarandon asked at the New York rally that gathered more than 100,000 people, “Are we wanted to be the ‘New Rome’ that force our interests with our overwhelming military forces.”

There were anti-war rallies held in tens of colleges including the University of Michigan that day, and after that, the anti-war atmosphere has been spreading to college communities.

A researcher of the WPL, Martha Honey sad, “There has been anti-war movements in at least 135 colleges in 35 states in October.” And there were more than 10,000 professors signed the anti-war letter at an anti-war site ‘noiraqattack.org.’

▽The cause of spreading the anti-war movement=According to the USA Today, up to the end of last year, 74% of the American people were in favor of the war against Iraq and 61% supported the war on this January. However, entering the middle of October 60% of them wanted a diplomatic solution. The experts pointed out that this change was due to the unclear justification of the war. There was not a clear evident that backed up the assertion of the President Bush that Iraq secured massive killing weapons; there was no evident that the Al Qaeda was related to Iraq; and there was low probability of relationship between many terror incidents and Iraq.

It was pointed out as another cause that since America did not enforce the draft system unlike the Vietnam War, the American youngsters could not feel the disaster and sorrow that war could bring.

Actually, the anti-war movement so far was led by around 30 social organizations such as ‘Stop the War,’‘Not in Our Name,’ and ‘Move On.’ Alignment and participation of the college students were projected on October.

▽The anti-war movement will be continued=There will be demonstrations planned in different places throughout November including one in Tampa, Florida on the 2nd. There will be big scale anti-war demonstrations planned in Washington on the Martin Luther King`s Birthday on January 18th and the Anniversary of the Opening of the Gulf War on January 19th.

Funds are also coming in. There has been 2 million dollars collected already as the subsidy fund for the anti-war congressmen in the Senate and House. The NNSW stated, “Once we were almost broke, but now checks are rushing in.”

Ki-Tae Kwon kkt@donga.com