I was walking down the sidewalk with my son this weekend when I unexpectedly came across a familiar, yet shrunken, sight: An anti-war protest. There were two men on the street corner, holding signs expressing opposition to ongoing warfare by the United States using flying drones.
Yes, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have diminished in size under Barack Obama, but no, they haven’t gone away. What’s more, drones and other military machines are killing people in attacks in other countries around the world as well.
When Barack Obama obtained the White House, anti-war protests from Democrats fell away. It just didn’t feel loyal to many Democrats to protest against any federal government action when the President was someone they had just voted for. Besides, they were sure that President Obama would end the wars very soon… any time now…
In the video below, these two demonstrators talk some other factors that have contributed to the diminishment of anti-war activism in the United States: The end of the military draft long ago, and the more recent replacement of killing by soldiers with killing by remotely-controlled flying robots.