Maybe I'm missing it and the big anti-war movement is happening on Facebook, but passing by the gaggle of 10 protesters in front of the federal building in downtown Seattle today on the afternoon before President Obama's second state of the union speech got me wondering why there is, for all intents and purposes, no antiwar movement in this country.

On its Sunday op-ed page, for example, where the NYT urged Obama to make bold statements on pressing issues, they didn't even broach the war.

Is it because Bush is out and Obama is a Democrat? (That didn't stop the protest kids from ousting Democrat LBJ.)

Is it because we're (mostly) out of Iraq—and Afghanistan is seen as "the right" war?

Is it because we've been in Afghanistan so long that it's just part of the scenery of contemporary America?

Whatever the case, the war in Afghanistan costs $30 billion a year. You'd think, given the pressing budget problem in D.C., the war would be a bigger deal.



I wondered, as the quiet crew on 2nd Ave. read the names of dead soldiers from Washington State, what Obama would say about Afghanistan tonight.

UPDATE:

Obama has given his speech, and he didn't get to the war in Afghanistan until the end. As I heard it, he justified the adventure in Iraq and painted a naively optimistic picture of the situation in Afghanistan, reading from the same script he's been reciting for over a year when he went with the expensive ($30 billion-a-year) Petraeus surge and counterinsurgency model over Biden's tailored counterrorism model.

I found the stay-the-course rhetoric (his July withdrawal deadline is littered with footnotes, most notably those articulated by Patraeus himself), lacking in credibility or substance.

Here are his brief remarks on the war:

Look to Iraq, where nearly 100,000 of our brave men and women have left with their heads held high; where American combat patrols have ended; violence has come down; and a new government has been formed. This year, our civilians will forge a lasting partnership with the Iraqi people, while we finish the job of bringing our troops out of Iraq. America's commitment has been kept; the Iraq War is coming to an end.

Of course, as we speak, al Qaeda and their affiliates continue to plan attacks against us. Thanks to our intelligence and law enforcement professionals, we are disrupting plots and securing our cities and skies. And as extremists try to inspire acts of violence within our borders, we are responding with the strength of our communities, with respect for the rule of law, and with the conviction that American Muslims are a part of our American family.

We have also taken the fight to al Qaeda and their allies abroad. In Afghanistan, our troops have taken Taliban strongholds and trained Afghan Security Forces. Our purpose is clear – by preventing the Taliban from reestablishing a stranglehold over the Afghan people, we will deny al Qaeda the safe-haven that served as a launching pad for 9/11.

Thanks to our heroic troops and civilians, fewer Afghans are under the control of the insurgency. There will be tough fighting ahead, and the Afghan government will need to deliver better governance. But we are strengthening the capacity of the Afghan people and building an enduring partnership with them. This year, we will work with nearly 50 countries to begin a transition to an Afghan lead. And this July, we will begin to bring our troops home.

In Pakistan, al Qaeda's leadership is under more pressure than at any point since 2001. Their leaders and operatives are being removed from the battlefield. Their safe-havens are shrinking. And we have sent a message from the Afghan border to the Arabian Peninsula to all parts of the globe: we will not relent, we will not waver, and we will defeat you.