Give Peace a Chance

I read an interesting article by Lawrence Kaplan in the New Republic titled, "Mall Rats." In it, he goes to the recent anti-war demonstration in DC and comes out very unimpressed. Although a 100,000 people showed up, it seems they couldn't get behind one central message, you know like maybe, GET OUT OF IRAQ. Instead it was more of a, "flea market for the disaffected," where Iraq booths competed with Palestine tents that competed with (probably) Free Mumia banners. Even the official label struggled to focus and read, "End colonial occupation: Iraq, Palestine, Haiti..." So why can't people unify behind their dislike of a war that is arguably less popular than Vietnam (a majority did not support withdrawal until 1969-1970, whereas a majority already want out of Iraq)? Kaplan argues it is the purely selfish self-preservationist fact that there is no draft and that this war really doesn't effect people on a personal level.
This might be selling the specifics of the two wars' differences a little short. For as much as I was opposed to us going into Iraq, an Iraq withdrawal does not hold the moral clarity that leaving Vietnam did. In my take, Vietnam was really us trying to deny a country their self-determination to rule themselves. Pulling out of Vietnam meant us stopping embroiling a small country in our cold war. Rooting for evacuating Iraq gets more tricky. You can't really say that you want it to return to Sadaam, who was certainly a terrible dictator. Nor can you really feel good about American troops leaving a country that would be then bound for years of Civil War.
But then again, Kaplan might be right. Would I be so worried about these details, if I was checking my mail every day for a draft card? Would people use an Iraq demonstration to broadcast their personal pet political project if they knew the continuing war meant their continuing chance to die? And how would I feel, if I found out a younger brother was going to risk his life for a war George Dubya got us into? Maybe we are so selfish. And I guess there is some historical precendent. When Nixon ixnayed the Vietnam draft, "It was as if someone had flicked a light switch. Presto, the throbbing social conscience that had spread across America went limp" (Mike Royco). How lame, if it true, that we are guaging our response more by saving our own necks than actually trying to make the world a better place.