Snag makes an excellent point about how some anti-war protestors love war as much as the pro-war people. Some people seem to live for war just so they can have something to protest against. Still, I want to make a distinction between the slogan bearing sign carrying protest types and the more intellectual anti-war activists who hate the existence of war.
Those protesters who you say love war don't make up a majority of anti-war activists. There is a certain segment of the population that just likes to protest, and they are protesting war as often as they are protesting corporatism, nuclear weapons, or whatever the fad is. No one takes them seriously. Because they are so visible, though, they get a lot of attention, mostly from the right, who uses them to stereotype everyone on the left, including real anti-war idealists. The anti-war movement (if you can call it a movement) has been demonized and vilified by the warmongering right who needs an "enemy" at all times to make it feel better about itself.
Real anti-war activists truly hate war. We see war as the worst aspect of human nature and set out to devise ways to avoid war at all costs. The EU is the ultimate anti-war experiment. Here you have a continent that has been mired in war throughout its existence. Europeans just grew tired of it and decided that they would end it by mutually assuring destruction of the continent were war to break out. It is a brilliant use of economics to prevent war. Time will tell if the experiment will work, but sixty years of peace among EU countries today is the longest stretch of peace in the history of the planet.
Being a real anti-war activist requires a lot of work. Not only are there letters to be written, Congress people to meet, and money to be raised, but there is also the protection of troops to consider. Did you know about the various "anti-war" activities to raise money to buy body armor for troops? Some of the most virulent war haters are also the strongest supporters of the troops, because they see the troops as human beings and not as part of a behemoth military machine.
Being a real anti-war activist also requires a lot of reading. There are all sorts of philosophical and intellectual angles to consider. One cannot win an argument without understanding the views of the other side. Conversely, one also has to understand why he/she hates war. If you go up to one of those "No blood for oil" sign wielders and ask them why they hate war, you will sometimes hear such answers as "war is stupid." Not exactly a good response.
Finally, being a real anti-war activist requires an understanding of the human condition. Are people basically good or basically evil? Left to themselves, human nature dictates a constant state of war. This is why we have governments: to protect us from each other. Unfortunately, these governments more often than not fail in their capacity to protect their citizens, and we often find we have to protect ourselves from our governments. Such is the case of the current administration. Anti-war people aren't la-dee-da peace, love, happiness types, they are real thinkers, and they are anti-war for selfish reasons as much as they are for human reasons. After all, who can argue that life in times of peace isn't better than in times of war?
At the end of the day, though, it comes down to people. People make up the planet, one that we have to share, and no amount of bombs can change this fact. In the end, most anti-war activists DO care about people before themselves. The pain of war is the deepest of all pains and ultimately makes life a tragedy. The fact that there are people out there that actually like war is sickening, and THAT may be the greatest tragedy of all.
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