As UC-Berkeley students stood poised to lead the 'Student March Against the War' on Saturday, anti-war opposition here is a mere shadow of its Vietnam conflict-era heyday.

"It's strange," observed Jesse Singh Dosanjh, a freshman running for a seat on the student senate. "Im surprised there arent more protesters."

Protests against the US invasion did take place at Berkeley at the start of the war, but the pacifist fervour wore off quickly even as the nearby city of San Francisco was rocked by rolling anti-war protests.

While Berkeley students this week were brandishing placards and swarming over the university's main plaza, the signs they waved had nothing to do with bombs and bullets being unleashed in Iraq.

Instead, they touted candidates for posts in the student government of the institution.

"Its senate (elections) week, which really drives most students crazy," lamented freshman Andrea Scally, one of four anti-war demonstrators protesting in the plaza on Thursday.

On one edge of the pack of self-promoting candidates, a Great Pyrenees hound named August stood wearing a 'Puppies for Peace' sandwich sign like a saddle.

Scally boasted that she was the 40th protester arrested after thousands of students briefly occupied an administration building here the day after US coalition forces attacked Iraq, sparking 118 arrests.

Anti-war activists were quick to blame the "spring break" holidays which came four days into the war, for sabotaging the momentum of anti-war fervor at the college, and hoped that Saturday's protest would revive their cause.

"I think the sentiment is going to be strong," said Jennifer Simons. "I see a lot more people getting active. I see more groups forming."

She said that instead of rallying on campus, Berkeley students had taken their outrage across the bay, joining protests that disrupted San Franciscos downtown rhythm for days last month and resulted in 2,300 arrests.

Activists were hoping that Saturday's march, due to start at Berkeley and expected to include students from colleges and public schools throughout California, would renew campus opposition to the war in Iraq.

"After September 11, students began to realize it might be important to pay attention to what is going on in the world," said Berkeley junior Michael Smith, a member of the Stop the War Coalition.

"Now that the war has begun, I expect more people to get involved," he said conceding however that "it doesnt happen overnight," especially as students battled to find jobs in a sinking economy.

However, talk of Iraq was rife in dormitories and classrooms as students become increasingly concerned, he contended.

But the absence of anti-war fliers, posters, and rhetoric at the Berkeley campus this week was pronounced.

On kiosks and message boards, rare anti-war messages were obscured by collages of advertisements for concerts, dance classes, legal aid, and cheap travel.

"I am surprised at how little of the anti-war protest is campus based," said UC Berkeley philosophy professor John R. Searle, who has taught at the college since 1959 and spoke at the first Vietnam teach-in on campus in 1965.

"There have been mini sit-ins, but nothing remotely similar to the Vietnam War protests."

Key factors that inspired students to rail against the war in Vietnam were the draft and the fact that the war dragged on without objective or purpose, Searle said.

"Those made a tremendous difference to students," Searle said, adding students initially werent that concerned about the Vietnam War.

"The war in Iraq isnt obviously a pointless thing, the way the Vietnam War was. These guys in Washington seem to have more of an objective."

If the spirit of defiance that triumphed over war in the 1960s is being resurrected at Berkeley, "I havent see it," Searle said.

SPACE.WIRE