Do protests make any difference?

[stkelly52]

I was thinking about the recent protests and I am left to wonder: what good are they? I am not asking this to belittle the protestors, and it is not even speciffically about the war protests. Have protests about any political issue ever really made a difference, or does it just make the protestors feel better?

[Bee]

Protests bring attention to a different viewpoint which raises awareness of the issues at hand (both pro and con). Protests can cause a change in policy, but it generally takes a very long time to do so (years) and the results during that time have to be on your side to achieve that change in policy.

[QuikSand]

Many people would argue that public protests eventually caused a general shift in public opinion about the war in Vietnam.

[Fritz]

Originally posted by QuikSand
Many people would argue that public protests eventually caused a general shift in public opinion about the war in Vietnam.

The strategic lesson about Vietnam-war era protests is that you must have shorter wars so dissent can be managed. Protests have also made us casualty adverse and more sensitive to collateral damage.

The protests from this action will probably have minimal effect on this campaign, but will impact future policy and strategy.

[Bee]

Originally posted by Fritz
The strategic lesson about Vietnam-war era protests is that you must have shorter wars so dissent can be managed. Protests have also made us casualty adverse and more sensitive to collateral damage.

The protests from this action will probably have minimal effect on this campaign, but will impact future policy and strategy.

What kind of impact to future policy and strategy would you expect to see?

[Fritz]

Originally posted by Bee
What kind of impact to future policy and strategy would you expect to see?

I think this will need to play out more before a good set of lessons learned can be established.

We have yet to see success or failure, and that will help frame the relative importance of the protests.

[albionmoonlight]

In the arena in which I operated for a while (anti-death penalty), I feel that protests helped to raise public awareness of issues--DNA testing for defendants, execution of the mentally deficient, etc.--and caused reforms to happen to the system faster than they would have without protests.

Also--it does help to energize those working in the movement when you see a lot of people who agree with you out proclaiming their belief.

[Tarkus]

Unless there's a protracted war I don't think protests will have any inpact at all on this war or any potential future war. As Bush said, you don't decide policy on security issues based on the vocal opinion of a small minority.

Tarkus

[andy m]

As Bush said, you don't decide policy on security issues based on the vocal opinion of a small minority.

indeed, you are spot on. policy on security issue is based on the misguided lunacy of power crazed paranoid maniacs.

[Tarkus]

Originally posted by andy m
indeed, you are spot on. policy on security issue is based on the misguided lunacy of power crazed paranoid maniacs.

Freely elected by the people of this country.

Tarkus

[Dutch]

In the Vietnam Era, people were protesting because they were tired of seeing so many people getting killed in a war that drug on for over a decade.

The protests of today are largely organized by socialistic movements and are aimed squarely at capitalism as it's enemy. With slogans like "Blood for Oil" and "American Imperialism", it's not to hard to figure out what they are really saying. They argue that the USA is fighting this war to strengthen the economy and that a strong US economy is evil.

The Turks protested like crazy about the thought of the US liberating Iraq. But when Turkey voted to allow it's own troops go into Iraq....well, there was the classic *crickets chirping* syndrome. Nothing but silence.

If these people were against war and not the US, then I would suspect they would have had world wide demonstrations against Iraq, North Korea, Rwanda, Israel/Palestine, Chechnya, and the former Yugoslavia conflicts.

But since they are not, it's easy to realize that the true message is one of "Anti-US" origin. While many have simply gone along for the ride, the ones that organize these events couldn't care less about American troop casualty rates and actually wish for more to prove their arguments are right.

So, yes, I don't neccessarily believe everything I see on TV about Chemical Weapons here and Divisions surrender there...but I don't give the organizers of these massive, world-wide coordinated protests the benefit of the doubt either.

There protests did divide an otherwise strong union in Europe with Nato and internationally with the UN. So do protests work? You better damned believe it.

[Tarkus]

Originally posted by Dutch
There protests did divide an otherwise strong union in Europe with Nato and internationally with the UN. So do protests work? You better damned believe it.

That's very true. Should have clarified that they don't work against US policy. They have clearly worked in other countries that might have been involved in this conflict.

Tarkus