Protesting War: Political Dissidence in America

Before the first bombs fell on Iraq several years ago, a massive international movement was busy trying to stop it. Men and women of all classes and professions in America, England, Italy, Germany, France, Spain, and South Africa (just to name a few) came out onto the streets in millions to halt the onset of unilateral war.

These people marched in the face of insults and indifference from world leaders and other citizens in their respective countries. Their sensitivity to the loss of human life was judged to be infantile and naive, their stance on policy unpatriotic and cowardly.

As operations on the ground have soured and casualties soared, and after the evidence that brought America to war has turned out to be trumped-up or falsified, American policy makers have started to believe that "staying the course" might be more difficult than had been optimistically (and foolishly) believed at the outset.

Why did no one listen to the protesters?

To understand this question, one must go back to the birth of America. No one can doubt that America's very beginnings rose from political dissidence. Visionary leadership, with a healthy dose of good luck, granted this nation a chance to form a new republic invested with qualities that defined a new global paradigm.

As America grew, new domestic policy problems arose. Women won the vote through protest, labor unions demonstrated for pay and the right to work without the threat of injury, and the civil rights movement gave African Americans the right to be treated equally under the law.

Few people would now deny that all of this dissidence came from cowardice or "un-Americanism," or that the bravery of these people did not grant to all Americans a better and more equitable country. These people stood against heavy opposition in their respective eras, but eventually they did manage to effect positive change. The general public could not stand in the way of such compelling social change because the dissidents were passionately engaged with their message, and were in it for the long haul. In other words, people eventually listened.