The protest that never shows up

On paper anyway, the Iraq war has become as unpopular at home as Vietnam.

The polls show opposition has reached historic levels. Nearly 70 percent of Americans now oppose this war — more than ever said they were opposed to Vietnam while U.S. troops were fighting it. On one question that pollsters have asked for 50 years — was sending troops a mistake? — the percentage of Americans who feel Iraq was a blunder now exceeds all the fights we've been in, from Korea to Bosnia. And it matches the regret over Vietnam at the height of the mass protests and draft-card burnings in the 1970s.

So Ken Slusher would very much like to know: Where are all you people?

Slusher is a Seattle photographer. Every Sunday for more than four years, he has stood at Green Lake with a sign protesting the war. Once, before the invasion, so many turned out they ringed the lake, which is 2.8 miles around.

A steady 50 folks gathered through most of 2003. Then it dwindled to 20. When the war turned into a quiet slog, in 2005, the vigil was lucky to draw a dozen.

The Sunday after last November's election, Slusher arrived at the regular spot with anticipation. We've voted out the Republicans, he figured. Now maybe there will be energy to bring home the troops.

No one else showed that Sunday. Or the next. For a month of Sundays, Slusher was a peace movement of one. In December, lonely and exasperated, he gave it up.

"It's frustrating as all hell," Slusher says. "Why aren't people steaming mad right now? The war is being expanded, exactly the opposite of what the country just voted for. And there's barely a peep."

It is curious. Army vet and war protester Joe Colgan of Kent says it's not just that people aren't taking to the streets. There's a numbness in the land. Congress finally is debating the war, but you don't hear much talk about it out in public.

Maybe Vietnam was so raw because of the draft, Colgan says. So few have been asked to sacrifice for this war.

"I'm as puzzled as I've ever been," Colgan said. "Are people in a state of shock? I don't know. Sometimes I think we're spoiled in this country, that we don't understand suffering or sacrifice anymore."

Colgan would know. His son Ben was in the Army. A bomb killed him in Baghdad in 2003.

Some say the silence is deceptive — that the anti-war movement left the streets for the Internet. You may not hear it, but Congress is being pounded with digital dissent.

Others say the turning point is now. Next weekend a peace march is planned, in Washington, D.C., that organizers vow will be the largest since the war began. Slusher tried to be hopeful about it. Then he said the press wouldn't report it if it's the biggest protest in the history of the world.

Those in the anti-war trenches say we're at another inexplicable moment in what's been a four-year twilight zone.

They look at the last election and the polls and know they've won. On paper, this war's a mistake and the troops should start coming home. On paper, the debate is over.

Then they look up.

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.