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Protest predictions on the road to war
By CURTIS KRUEGER, Times Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG -- Herb Snitzer, a 70-year-old fine art photographer wearing a John Coltrane sweat shirt and a New England Patriots ball cap, pulled into a convenience store parking lot and opened the trunk of his car, which was stuffed with antiwar signs. A veteran of hundreds of protests, Snitzer handed out placards but saved a special one for himself. It read: "Bombing for Peace Is A Lie," and listed the countries "Yugoslavia" and "Iraq." The sign is a relic of mid 1990s protests during the Bosnian War, but Snitzer never threw it away, feeling sure of two things: America would drop more bombs, and he would protest. So last week, with America girding for military action against Iraq, Snitzer repeated the cycle, waving his sign on a St. Petersburg corner. So did about 25 others, as part of a weekly vigil. This is the axiom: When America goes to war, the opposition goes to protest. It happened during the Vietnam War. To some extent, it happened during World War I, World War II and the first Gulf War. It's happening now. But this is the question: Will opposition to U.S. war against Iraq grow beyond the traditional antiwar groups and spread to a wider public? It's a question relevant for those who support a war as well as those who oppose it. It's also a question that divides peace activists who are otherwise united in opposing the potential U.S. military action. Some activists, such as retired St. Petersburg teacher Ken Wilson, 61, think a relatively quick war involving few American casualties probably would not prompt large-scale American opposition. "I don't think there's going to be widespread dissent," Wilson said, as he demonstrated with Snitzer and others last week. Other activists say American opposition has become widespread already but has been downplayed by the media. Mark Kamleiter, 53, a St. Petersburg attorney and co-chairperson of the Green Party of Florida, said he thinks the opposition "has been pretty vocal, but I think it's been kind of ignored." Rosemary Gould, who recently urged the St. Petersburg City Council to pass a resolution opposing war in Iraq, is among those who think "this action is opposed by so many different people, not just your traditional peace groups." She thinks opposition will grow. But asked how mainstream America has reacted so far to the potential war, she said, "I have to say that they're being silent in terms of taking organized action." So far, President Bush appears to be winning the war of public opinion. An ABC News poll conducted Jan. 2-5 found that 63 percent of Americans support "a U.S.-led ground war against Iraq to destroy its nuclear weapons capability." It said 32 percent were opposed. A CNN-Time poll in December found that about 55 percent of Americans thought the United States should take military action against Iraq to remove President Saddam Hussein. Four in 10 felt strongly about it. However, the same poll found that if the United Nations and President Bush did not find proof that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, 66 percent of Americans would oppose military action. A year-end Associated Press poll indicated that two-thirds of Americans were worried that war with Iraq would increase chances of a terrorist attack in the United States. Linda Hubner, who has been organizing weekly vigils opposing the war, says opposition might be bigger if the war actually had begun. "This is kind of a pre-emptive movement," said Hubner, 52, a member of the Religious Society of Friends. "All the other ones that I've ever been involved in are in response to war." Michael Gannon, a distinguished service professor emeritus of history at the University of Florida, said, "Most people trust the president; they tend to believe that he has sources of knowledge that others do not." Whether that changes may depend on how the war goes. "It's still sort of an abstraction at this point, but when you see the coffins and the faces of those who died, war takes on a very different character," Gannon said. And if many Americans die, the public will want to know clear reasons and objectives for the war. "I think where your cause is uncertain and unclear, it makes the loss of life that much more tragic," said Gannon, who opposes war against Iraq. "I do think that if we began to suffer casualties in any significant numbers, opposition to the war would develop." Pat Yochim, 66, a St. Petersburg retiree, said she had never protested U.S. military action before. But she was waving a sign last Wednesday that said "Save Lives/Make Peace." She said she was moved to demonstrate because "I'm against pre-emptive (military) action. That's never been done. That's just bullying." One notable voice against the war so far has been U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., who says he supports a war on terrorism but disagrees that a full-scale assault on Iraq is the way to do it. He is considering running for president, and his campaign could hinge at least partly on this issue. Another politician pondering public opinion about the war is James Bennett, a St. Petersburg City Council member. When activists urged the council in December to pass a resolution opposing the war, he said he would talk to constituents. So he wrote a letter to 14 neighborhood groups, asking them to give him an opinion by Feb. 1. No one has responded. People do talk to him about the war, and he has concluded there are "many citizens out there that are very anxious. . . . They are questioning the war." At the same time, he said, there's no groundswell. "I'm getting more messages about changing the M.L. King (Ninth) Street sign," he said. Kamleiter, the Green Party co-chairperson, said he thinks the opposition will become more visible at 1 p.m. Saturday, when people from across Florida are scheduled to arrive for a three-hour "peace gathering" at the main entrance to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. Thousands plan to attend a related protest in Washington. "They are mainstream (people) that will be coming," he said of the Tampa event. "I mean, there will be some of the old peaceniks, okay. But there will be a lot of people who don't do this sort of thing."
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