Has it been three years already? The recent anniversary of the Iraq war saw protesters take to the streets in Australia, Turkey, Britain and elsewhere.

In Australia, protesters rallied against a recent speech by Condoleeza Rice, saying she had “blood on her hands.” Others chanted “your name sounds like Chinese food.” In Turkey, the war is so universally repugnant that opposition to the conflict cuts across all political and ethnic stripes. Who says Bush doesn’t unite people?

So, in the spirit of giving, we launched the largest air assault since the beginning of the war. But is this escalation of the war consistent with public opinion?

A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll indicates that almost two-thirds of Americans now believe that troops should begin to return home now that Iraq has a constitution. Further, more than half of those polled said that, when weighed against the casualties and staggering financial cost of the war, it was “not worth it.” There is a silver lining, however. According to a recent Fox news headline, “For the stock market, the Iraq war is win-win!”

The question then becomes why protests against the war are so common and accepted in foreign countries and yet so rare here in the U.S.?

While the anniversary saw major anti-war rallies all over the world, a similar event in San Francisco only drew a few thousand people.

Although about 500 protests are being planned in the U.S., none expect to draw the thousands that foreign protests do. This is the country that has suffered well over 2,000 dead and over 20,000 wounded and whose reputation has been done irreparable harm. Why aren’t we as mad as the Australians!?

I believe the most probable answer lies in the way supporters of the war have manipulated the media. If you listen to someone like Bill Frist, Republican Senate Majority leader and (God help us) 2008 presidential hopeful, those opposed to the war are nothing but liberal tree-huggers.

However, according to the most recent poll data, the average person opposed to the war is…an average person!

It’s time we stopped shying away from activism for fear of being labeled anti-American.

Chances are the guy next to you is just as pissed off about this meaningless war as you are.

If it is true that Americans have turned against the war, where are the peace candidates?

Most democrats are still too spineless to openly oppose the war.

They live with the fear that things will work out in Iraq and Karl Rove will use it to tear them apart in the next election.

Senator Russ Feingold’s recent attempt to censure the president met with virtually no support even from Democrats. And if I hear one more Democrat cry about how the Republicans won’t let them participate in the legislative process I’ll go back to voting for Ralph Nader.

Maybe that’s too far. Nader would probably get universal health care for the Iraqis before we got it.

But there is a glimmer of hope.

The newly formed organization Voters for Peace has just unveiled a well-funded effort to get five million signatures on a petition that reads: “I will not vote for or support any candidate for president or Congress who does not make a speedy end to the war in Iraq, and preventing any future war of aggression, a public position in his or her campaign.” And public opposition to the war could be a winning strategy according to the opinion polls.

Fifty percent of those polled in the NBC News poll said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who “favors withdrawing all American troops from Iraq in the next twelve months.”

And if we oppose the war, we should give these candidates our vote. Democrats feel the same way about the anti-war vote as they do about the black vote.

They think they can count on these voting blocks even if they don’t really represent their interests just because the Republicans are that much worse. But it’s high time Congress began to reflect the growing opposition to the war here at home, just as it is time those opposed to the war stopped being afraid to express that sentiment.

Peace and patriotism are not opposing values.

Send comments to Jon at [email protected].