Re: Stars and Stripes: "The whole city, from every side, was fighting"

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Ralph Johansen wrote:
>
> And one crucial difference here is that the colonists were British. It
> would be a hard stretch to call the Iraqis who support the invasion and
> occupation "loyalists". Although I suppose this administration could
> manage it.

I think the emphasis should be on the (rather generally applicable)
perception that when 1/3 (actually, 1/5 might do it) of a population are
strongly committed to a negative point, they become rather difficult to
suppress. Living in an electoral democracy tends to blur this point by
over-emphasizing the need for majority support. Some of us predicted on
the basis of polls in Iraq showing something like 15% core rejection of
the occupation that the Occupation was a dead duck. Others, carrying
over irrelevant electoral habits, made a big fuss about the large
numbers not wanting immediate withdrawal -- numbers which were really
irrelevant.

Carrol