Adam, as to balancing your rural Republican students--there is not only the large urban youth votes going heavily Green and to the "democratic wing" of the Democratic Party. Look at who is in the streets demonstrating against the war on terrorism, globalization, and the war on Iraq. It isn't all middle aged hippies from the 60s by a long shot. The half million demonstrators in Europe recently were overwhelmingly in their late teens and twenties. Same with the demos bringing out the numbers around the US. The anti-war resistance movement is being led by youthful leaders as often as more experienced older leaders. And the confrontational anarchists have been successfully marginalised by the mainstream movement post-9/11, without having divided the movement or weakening it.

No, this is already a much more formidable movement today than the anti-Vietnam War movement was at it's post-72 height, when the anti-war movement's efforts began to take effect, and the war began winding down. This is a movement that I believe will be able to keep Bush in check, so long as the UN inspectors get enough cooperation from Iraq.

I just hope that the movement will then be able to turn itself to the seriousness of the need for a revitalized disarmament movement, to deal realistically with the post-Cold War realities of the arms race which is winding it self up, not down. I believe there is no greater danger to world security than weapons of mass destruction. But I was in the streets demonstrating against that, and working to pass ballot initiatives against the military build-up of weapons of mass destruction, throughout the 1980s. This business of going after Iraq for their weapons of mass destruction is nothing more than a smokescreen for the Bush administration to get into the Middle East, and control the oilfields. It has nothing to do with the administration's concern for the threat of weapons of mass destruction to world security. Nothing whatsoever.