Antiwar Protests are back in the news.

Americans Turn Sharply Against Interventionism

U.S. Seen as Less Important, China as More Powerful Isolationist Sentiment Surges to Four-Decade High

"In polling conducted before President Obama’s decision to increase U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, both groups expressed pessimism about prospects for long-term stability in Afghanistan. Fewer than half of the public (46%) and CFR members (41%) say it is very or somewhat likely that Afghanistan will be able to withstand the threat posed by the Taliban. While half of the CFR members (50%) favor increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan, just 32% of the public agrees."

Progressive Leaders Pan Obama's Decision for More War in Afghanistan -- 10 ReactionsTom Hayden says he's taking the Obama bumpersticker off his car, Laura Flanders says the Bush Doctrine is still alive, and more.

Reactions to Obama's War

Neocons, war liberals sign on, says Justin Raimondo

Justin Raimond of Antiwar.com writes

:I’m actually pretty surprised to see that many liberals and progressives are not climbing on board Obama’s war wagon – notably Rachel Maddow, who made a stinging criticism of the escalation by comparing the rhetoric of the Bush administration and that of the New Obama, concluding that the latter had adopted and even extended the essence of the "Bush Doctrine," the morally indefensible idea that we have to strike at targets that might possibly pose a threat to U.S. national security some time in the indefinite future. Her subsequent interview with counterinsurgency guru John Nagl, however, was strictly softball – but, hey, whaddaya expect. This is MSNBC, after all."

Obama Pleases the NeoconsWashington's neocons gloat at their success in goading President Obama into an Afghan War escalation, reports Robert Parry.

Poll Shows US Isolationist Sentiment GrowingA new opinion poll shows the American public growing more isolationist and less supportive of U.S. missions abroad.

Washington Area Residents Offer Mixed Reactions to New US War StrategyU.S. President Barack Obama's decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan is drawing mixed reactions from people around the nation's capital - including some Afghan immigrants.

Michael WinshipSenior writer at Bill Moyers Journal on PBS The Afghan Ambush

Michael Winship writes:

The decision has been made. The months of meetings and briefings are over. Tuesday night, the President made it official: 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan. Along with Friday's announcement of an additional 7,000 from our NATO allies, after all those weeks of debate and consultation, the result's pretty much exactly what our commander over there, General Stanley McChrystal, asked for in the first place.

As they used to say in the old war movies, we're in it now, up to our necks. More than ever, this is Obama's War. The mess he inherited from the previous administration is now his mess. And while many Republicans may don their helmets, rattle their empty rusty scabbards and shout that escalation is the only way to go, their temporary declarations of support are just that -- temporary. Pats on the back are simply their way of finding the proper place to stick the knife.

Last week's Gallup Poll showed that while 65 percent of Republicans support sending all the troops McChrystal wants, only seventeen percent of Obama's own Democrats do; 57 per cent want a troop reduction. In other words, ignoring the entreaties of a majority in his own party Obama is going to war cheered on by the opposition that will do everything in its power next fall to bring him and his fellow Democrats down.

Friday's New York Times reported, "President Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan over the objections of fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill is straining a relationship already struggling under the weight of an administration agenda that some Democratic lawmakers fear is placing them in a politically vulnerable position."

Next year's midterm elections could be a disaster for the Democrats. That's what happened to Lyndon Johnson. After winning by the largest plurality ever in 1964, bringing with him huge majorities in the House and Senate, in 1965 he escalated the Vietnam War. The next year, Democrats lost 50 seats in Congress."

A narrow majority of Americans support President Obama's revamped strategy on Afghanistan, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Wednesday, but there are broad concerns that the costs of the war will sap the government's ability to address problems facing the nation at home.

Though the results underscore a significant selling job ahead for the White House, they also show a willingness by Democratic voters to back Obama despite their reservations about the war.

Read more ....

When you read the details of this poll, I quickly realized that there is no narrow majority support for Obama's Afghan strategy. USA Today cherry picked the results that they wanted to publicize, ignoring the results of questions in which it is clear that the majority of respondents were not in favor of the President's policy.

For example .... 80% are against the President's timetable for withdrawing, and only 40% are in favor of the number that is being deployed. How this can be construed as favoring the President's strategy is beyond me.

Obama's War Speech Woke the Sleeping Giant -- Anger Over Afghan Surge Fuels Country-Wide Protests

By Jodie Evans, AlterNet. Posted December 4, 2009.

The president's announcement of a troop surge in Afghanistan this week prompted protests in over 80 communities across the country.

CODEPINK issued an alert on Thursday, December 3, about the President's West Point speech on Afghanistan and his failure to respond to the many voices calling for peace. We asked people to email the White House to voice their concerns.

The alert had been out for three minutes when the phone rang. My assistant Mark answered, then turned to me and said, "The White House is calling."