Peace, love, exams--U.S. anti-war movement quieter than in 1970
KENT, Ohio (Reuters) - Jerry M. Lewis has seen anti-war protests at their mightiest and most tragic. As a faculty peace marshal in 1970, he saw Ohio National Guardsmen kill four students at Kent State University during a protest against the Vietnam War.
Today, the sociology professor sees little anti-war sentiment at the liberal arts school. Iraq, he says, is a different war than Vietnam, in one big way.
"It's a pretty short explanation: D-R-A-F-T," Lewis said. "We've segregated the war. It's nasty, it's sad ... but it's 'over there.'"
Critics of President Bush have compared the bleak and bloody war in Iraq with the U.S. failure in Vietnam a generation ago, but the flower-power peace movement that marked the Vietnam era is mostly a memory.
The lack of a draft has kept the war at arm's length from most Americans, though polls show a majority believe the United States should leave Iraq -- sentiment that helped Democrats win control of Congress in November.
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Today, the sociology professor sees little anti-war sentiment at the liberal arts school. Iraq, he says, is a different war than Vietnam, in one big way.
"It's a pretty short explanation: D-R-A-F-T," Lewis said. "We've segregated the war. It's nasty, it's sad ... but it's 'over there.'"
Critics of President Bush have compared the bleak and bloody war in Iraq with the U.S. failure in Vietnam a generation ago, but the flower-power peace movement that marked the Vietnam era is mostly a memory.
The lack of a draft has kept the war at arm's length from most Americans, though polls show a majority believe the United States should leave Iraq -- sentiment that helped Democrats win control of Congress in November.