Meatstick Rebuttal: Letter to Editor from Seattle Times

A man wrote into the Seattle Times today to talk about how happy he was to see that only 1,000 people showed up for protests in Seattle. He thought this was very telling considering the fact that Seattle is a 'bastion of Liberal extremism.' He seems to equate only 1,000 people showing up to protest with the fact that the majority of America agrees with the war. He gives us the following quote:

"I believe most Americans have an innate faculty to 'do the right thing' even when it is painful and costly. If our global conflict with terrorists and extremeists was not the 'right thing' we'd have a lot more than a thousand people speaking out against it."

Wow. Let me break this down for you guy. Throughout history the majority of protest movements gain strength through the help of young, passionate students. In the last few decades we have seen this with Vietnam, Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, and the student led revolution to overthrow the shah in Iran. Students lead protests when their lives are being affected by what is going on, that is common knowledge. This war in Iraq has no impact on the majority of American students because there is no draft. Therefore, you aren't going to see 1 million people in the streets of Seattle protesting. However, that should not be confused with the fact that the majority of Americans support the war. One only needs to look at poll numbers to see that support for this war are at record lows. From CNN International:

"By March 2004, only 48 percent of the American public supported the war, compared to 72 percent around the time of the invasion. The support numbers continued to drop, to 47 percent in 2005, 40 percent last year and, now, 32 percent."

Bottom line, protest numbers have no direct correlation with support (or non support) for the war in Iraq.