billion, not million. i thought that sounded pret-ty cheap.

Shit, I'll pay for it. That's half the size of my trust fund.

Protest fatigue? Are you fucking serious?

Ha. I'm retarded.

Re: Protest Fatigue

But others said it is less likely they'll head to Washington at all. "People are tired, they are frustrated because they didn't expect this to go on so long," said Laura Bonham, a spokeswoman for Progressive Democrats of America, which lobbies lawmakers to support a withdrawal. "It's like, well, we can stay home."

llaaaaaame...

Scott, according to CostOfWar.com (accurate?), a year of the war costs about $100 billion, so to save $7 billion per year, we'd have to take just under one month off per year. Let's say February. Iraq is so dreary then, anyhow. Then everyone comes back to the war nice and refreshed, ready for another 11 months. Or years, whatever.

Also, "attendance at anti-war protests has dwindled, even though anti-war sentiment is now expressed by a solid majority of Americans. Why?"

1) Most of those anti-war Americans think of protests as too radical, aren't politically active (they're only answering polls), or find the specifics of the protests -- sponsors, attending groups, tactics, goals -- distasteful ("anti-war sentiment" might mean "end it now", "end it soon", "end it properly", or the ever popular "let's burn something").

2) The major rallies that occurred back before the war got underway didn't seem to accomplish anything. What's gonna happen now that we're in the middle of it all?

3) Left-wing rallies are terrible at getting across a coherent message. I've been opposed to this war from the start, but when I went to past rallies, I wasn't there to support the "9-11 truth" guy. Or various other anarchist, socialist, environmentalist, unionist, hippyist types, even if I agree with their message.

4) Protests are nowhere near as effective as elections, and in spite of 2006, nothing has really changed. (Thanks, Democrats!) It's pretty clear that nothing is going to change for at least a couple of years, protests or no.

5) The people with the megaphones need to come up with some new chants. That warmed-over 60s dreck really annoys me. Or at least it did last time I went to a protest.

I went to tons of anti-war protests before the war started. It seemed important (to me anyway, maybe it was pointless, who knows) to show people that there were people out there who thought the war was a bad idea, since the news made it look like the country was 100% behind the war.

Now that the majority is against the war, who cares? The anti-war sentiment is no longer a message entirely hidden by the media, so I just don't see the point or protesting. You can get your anti-war sentiment on any channel of the TV these days.