With Bushs troop surge already underway and the cost of the Iraq War skyrocketing, leaving in its wake over 3,200 dead Americans, 655,000 dead Iraqis, and countless wounded on both sides, it is clear: the anti-war movement needs a surge of its own.
Working-class Americans are outraged at seeing their jobs, education opportunities, and social services being undercut, their families and friends coming back in wheelchairs and body bags, and at being lied to repeatedly to justify a war they increasingly see as un-winnable. According to the latest USA Today/Gallup poll, 66% of Americans dont think the U.S. will win the war, and 46% believe the U.S. cannot win the war.
There is also a growing mood for struggle. Emboldened by the overwhelming defeat of the Republicans last November, people have gained a sense of confidence. Bushs surge of 21,500 troops further enflamed the anti-war opinion. Polls show that around 75% of the country opposes Bushs escalation of the war, which is widely seen as a slap in the face to the majority of U.S. society who voted to end the war last November.
Drawing on this mood, we have seen a resurgence in the antiwar movement. On January 11, the day after Bush announced the troop surge, over 1,000 semi-spontaneous protests were held across the country, organized over the internet. On January 27 an estimated 200,000 rallied in Washington, DC, accompanied by tens of thousands more in local rallies across the country. Widespread protests are expected in mid-March to mark the fourth anniversary of the Iraq invasion.
Antiwar protests are also taking on a more militant character, indicating a growing realization that more serious action will be needed to end the war. On February 15, students at 27 schools across the country walked out of school to protest the war. At UC-Santa Barbara, nearly a thousand students walked out and marched down highway 217 and blocking traffic.
Even the liberal United for Peace and Justice is pushing the Occupation Project, urging activists to occupy the offices of representatives of both parties who refuse to vote down war appropriations.
Protests alone are not going to stop the war. We need to make the political cost of continuing the war higher for the ruling class than the cost of losing in Iraq. We need to seize the opportunity before us to broaden the antiwar opposition into the working class, and to prepare the ground for truly mass action that brings the war machine to a grinding halt.