So that leaves the ANSWER coalition doing its own thing in town and a few smaller peace and progressive coalitions. If its any sign, the email traffic from the broad coalition has slowed to very little.
All I know is that of my immediate circle of friends, including many who LED anti-war coalitions against the Gulf War, most are supportive or indifferent to the intervention and take a bit of arguing to pull them back to an antiwar position. I think the moral blindness of the antiwar rhetoric has contributed to this result. They basically say to me that the whole tone of most of the visible antiwar rallies (mainly the WWP/ANSWER ones) have so alienated them that they are sitting this one out and feeling far more sympathy for the desires of many folks to get vengeance.
The only positive outlook is that the antiwar movement is basically irrelevant-- they are unlikely to effect anything in the short term, but the policy in Afganistan is already collapsing of its own wrongheaded weight. The words "quagmire" are already being mentioned in the mainstream press, the NY Times is detailing the savage turning of muslim opinion globally against us, the failings of the Afgani opposition, and the fact that the Taliban will probably slaughter our soldiers in any serious on-the-ground action. The Bush administration is already publicly noting that it doesn't matter if we get Bin Laden, since the network is worldwide, so they are rapidly recognizing that the whole "war" rhetoric has them in a dead end. Probably won't stop the bombing in the short term but unless Bush Jr. is seriously dumber than he looks (an awesome achievement that he might be able to attain), it will avoid more escalation and will encourage a search for a "declare victory and go home" exit strategy.
Nathan Newman
----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Robert Dean" <qualiall_2 at yahoo.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Monday, October 29, 2001 2:22 PM Subject: Re: Antiwar movement losing steam?????
I missed the original post on this but I think that the Buffalo activists are losing steam myself, especially on the split between the war question. There is talk of others forming "new" splinter coalitions here as well.
> >I am under the impression that the anti-war
> movement
> >here in the San Francisco Bay Area is losing steam.
> >I was wondering if others in other parts of the
> >country are noticing the same thing.
> >
> >
>
>
===== Kevin Dean Buffalo, NY ICQ: 8616001 http://www.yaysoft.com
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