modern political leaders and civilians have no place protesting war

People who try to keep proving something that is false are what everyone calls "stubborn" when either of us sees someone who is stubborn we either ignore them or we offer evidence of why they are wrong. There is a small chance they may agree with you and change their views but if a person still ignores the facts you presented then we can all agree that such a person is stubborn and should not be listened too. They can try to prove something thats been defeated all they want, all we have to do is keep defeating them which is a pretty easy thing to do when arguing with stubborn people... Hippie movements against the war dont actually do anything you know...... Just today I saw a group of people outside my dorm residence with signs that says "God hates f_gs" But they certainly are not having an impact on gay rights..... Hippie protests are just people who have opinions and have enough time in their day to go and make some noise about it to people like you and me. Hippie protests in no way impact the outcome of distant wars. Your next statement suggests that anyone who hasnt actually been to war would always have a biased opinion of it...... Remember the first gulf war in the early 1990's, the one that lasted not even 4 days?? There were reporters in every other Humvee moving across the desert who showed everyone with a tv what was going on. There have been reporters in every battle scene since the Civil War who simply document what they see, maybe throw in some statistics, and just present that information to us....... People can have an unbiased opinion of the war without actually being there to see it happen in person. They can evaluate the accounts and reports of many reporters who HAVE been there though and then draw (usually unbiased) opinions of the war by themselves... "hippies and extremists stealing our supplies and sending it to the enemy" You dont have any proof of that and I dont think that was much of an issue in Vietnam or necessarily in ANY US war.... "could have found the tunnels and wiped out the enemy" We did find the tunnels but we cant simply shove a 200 pound bomb in there and blow it to hell, these were some very elaborate tunnel systems that often could only be cleared out if we sent our own soldiers in there. "Cambodia and Laos were helping the Vietnamese" they werent giving them tanks and planes to fight us they only occasionally allowed them into the edge of their territory. But that wasnt what angered Vietnam war era Americans it was the fact that the US was actually in 3 wars when we were lied to and told we were only in 1...... Hippie protests had nothing to do with fueling anti-war resentment at this point because the fact that the people were lied to did the job for them...... "Nixon had to keep secrets otherwise it would have turned more Americans" No duh it would have turned more Americans because it is something that shouldnt have been done in the first place. If Americans were voicing concerns about how Laos and Cambodia allegedly offered help to the Vietnamese enemy and the American people were calling for war, THEN it would have been justified.......... But people did not think that and so when they found out the government did it anyway without the public's consideration that angered a lot of Americans against the war...... Hippie demonstrations played no part in that....... Your last opinion is that no one should voice their opinion if they arent well informed. We can all agree on that but people will always try to enforce their views but like I said before if they are stubborn morons and people KNOW they are stubborn morons than the stubborn morons wont impact anything..... By the way how exactly do Hippie protests (allegedly) cost us wars?