Protesters may be angrier in some demonstrations overseas, but they're anything but that here in Melbourne, Australia. The two rallies I went to at the end of last week (about 15-20,000 people attending each time) were perfectly peaceful affairs (though missing that air of hopefulness of the pre-war rallies). And they retained the same mix of people; young, old, feral, middle-class, ...
I can't speak for the rest of the people at the rally, but I'm protesting the human cost of this war - not necessarily from direct bombing. The number of Iraqis that will be killed due to the destruction of their infrastructure remains to be seen, but it will be high, and it's not even being acknowledged by the media hacks "informing" the public.
There's other reasons too, but they border on conspiracy-theory nutjob stuff that I won't go into (you know, the US plans to take over the world, or at least make sure the greenback doesn't lose its current country-whalloping power...)
It's important to me that I stand up and make it known that just because the war's started, I haven't just changed my mind and decided that it's a good idea after all.
I don't really believe it's possible for the troops to be withdrawn at this late stage (though the withdrawal of our troops really wouldn't affect things, would it?) - I just want to add my voice to the masses that are saying that we didn't want this war.
As for the "shock and awe" war guaranteed to be over within the American attention span ... well, it looks like the Iraqis aren't just rolling over. The Yanks still have to take several major cities (including the one holding Bush's Grail) and that fighting is going to be extraordinarily ugly, and drawn out. I desperately hope I'm wrong about this, but I can't see this war being over any time soon.