Whenever I hear about the Iraq war on the "leftist" podcasts I listen to (other than Media Roots Radio) I always get hit with the usual suspects to blame - freakin' Hillary, the 'Democrat' party leadership (most rank-and-file congressional Ds voted against Iraq), or the uniquely evil super-genius Bush.
Why does no one ever dive into opinion polls at the time showing something like 70-80% of wypipo supported the invasion? It isn't even uniquely interesting to point out 'hypocrites' like Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump or Glenn Greenwald supported invading Iraq - because it would be really strange if they didn't. I do remember Bill Maher saying US troops would get their asses kicked in March 2003 but that was probably just part of his bit of being the ugly guy who gets booed
Even today in organizing groups of people slightly left of center anti-war stuff just isn't on the radar at all. I remember way back during the first "Indivisible" organizing in my town (which was Trump Country PA) and searching for points of unity I basically stood alone under the "anti-war" paper "issues" sign that I made. Most Americans just don't give a fuck about foreign policy. Its for nerds, and those nerds 9/10 want to bomb more_ people. I hate it. As an aside there was one wobbly-guy there at that first meeting, and in the first 5 minutes he just left. Should've taken that as a sign early on.
Honestly, the only consistently anti war folks I work with are a few "proper" libertarians. They might have a meme ideology, but damnit they are consistent on foreign policy & incarceration.
Yes, they're also consistent on a lot of the more annoying libertarian stuff involving regulations, but I live in BFE, so I organize with who I can on what I can.
That's a good point, I think I can relate to that experience too.