> One, why were some of the most massive anti-war
> demonstrations in the history of the planet so impotent?
Actually, they were potent indeed. The marches took place in Europe and Asia, the true power-centers of the world economy, and they succeeded in pushing their governments to take a stand against the US Empire. The multinational Left actually won that battle.
> And two, why has public opinion turned against the war so much
> faster this time than it did
> against the war in Vietnam?
Interesting question. One issue is that the economy was booming in the 1960s. Nowadays, people are scraping by, living paycheck to paycheck. Gung-ho doesn't pay the rent. The other is our mass media, which has great powers of resistance. And of course Bush is obviously dim, whereas LBJ and Nixon were smooth operators.
Maybe it's also the fact that the Iraqi resistance proved so devastatingly effective. No jungle, no air cover, the simplest of weapons, but damn, have they ever tied the world's biggest military into a pretzel.
-- DRR