How US sparked the anti-war campaign
True, our sense of outrage should be greater when our governments criminally drag their feet while dealing with the crisis in Darfur. But to compare the response to this genocide with the protests last year misses the point of the anti-war campaign completely.
The size of the protests last year showed that opposition to US foreign policy was shared by many sections of society and it is hard to believe that such a large group was simply anti-American.
Our hope for the future was limitless after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but the idea that ordinary people's desire for freedom will always defeat their oppressors took a battering when the world's only superpower spoke of protecting liberty while sponsoring coups in Venezuela, leaving Afghanistan to the warlords and passing legislation like the Patriot Act.
While many are (as they should be) outraged by the disaster in Sudan, rightly or wrongly their first concern is with their own futures.
What finally drove protesters onto the streets was a sense that politicians across the West were ignoring the legitimate concerns of their electorates. When they complain about a low turnout at the next election, maybe Mr Murphy will address their hypocrisy with the same enthusiasm.
Colin McGovern
Baanstraat 5
3581 VS Utrecht
The Netherlands
