The propositions made by Andrew Snyder are as uninformed and inaccurate as most conservative arguments these days. Perhaps Snyder was too young to know that there was, in fact, a significant amount of opposition to the Clinton-era military actions in Kosovo, Somalia, and Iraq. Ignoring the numerous books written to decry such actions, and the sizeable amount of anti-war articles in major and minor magazines, Synder doesn’t seem to know that there were also demonstrations as well.
There are significant differences here, which he ignores in his op-ed piece. 1) We are dealing with higher stakes, such as Nuclear and Biological Warfare on a grand scale. The situations in Somalia and Kosovo were of not of the same consequence, and even the situation in Iraq at the time was not nearly as potentially destructive as today. 2) The size of the Clinton-era anti-war movement seems smaller now because massive rallies were not easily organized then. The increased and efficient use of newer technologies has increased the organizational abilities of the anti-war movement and allowed for giant protests such as those at the WTO meetings. 3) The Left was a bit more supportive of Clinton, but not as much as conservatives whine about today. If you were to survey the literature about global politics in the Clinton years, you would see as much furor over situations like Somalia and East Timor, Bosnia, and the tragedy of the Kurdish population in Iraq.
Perhaps students should stop jumping to knee-jerk conclusions about events that they do not remember.
