Ryan TM - Latest Comments in Non-violence in Iraq - Ryan Mulligan

Re: Non-violence in Iraq - Ryan Mulligan

DavidEGrayson — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:48:46 -0000

It's conscience, not conscious.

Re: Non-violence in Iraq - Ryan Mulligan

Ryan Mulligan — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 01:32:45 -0000

Interesting, I never considered that the Iraqis might not be effected enough by the US army on a daily basis to care enough. I definitely believe that it is a probable situation though.

Re: Non-violence in Iraq - Ryan Mulligan

Jacob Lee — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:22:34 -0000

Welcome to the party. People have been saying this about the Palestinian territories for years. But I think the reason this hasn't happened is not because nobody has suggested it yet; nor is it (as I have heard espoused) evidence that the Arabs aren't interested in peace.

Believe it or not, I think the reason there has been no mass civilian uprising against the U.S. army presence is that the U.S. is not powerful enough in Iraq. In India, you had a well-defined, strong, foreign central authority. The average non-insurgent Iraqi, on the other hand, is not beholden to the United States in the same way: he is controlled by a variety of warlord-ish factions, by an ineffectual central government, and by an effective but certainly not omnipresent foreign army. In such a situation, it's hard to argue that staging protests outside the Green Zone would be effective; and it would certainly be hard for even a motivated group of Iraqis to convince a few million of their compatriots to join in that sort of action.

As for the occupied territories in Israel, I think you could make the case that nonviolent resistance would have some effect. I think having a few million people hold parades at checkpoints every day would cause the glacier that is the peace process to start thawing out.

Re: Non-violence in Iraq - Ryan Mulligan

Ryan Mulligan — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:53:11 -0000

You are rite!

Thanks for the spelling correction. I fixed it above.

Re: Non-violence in Iraq - Ryan Mulligan

Kevin Chang — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:54:18 -0000

more like goody-two-shoes-THROWN-IN-YOUR-FACE amirite?

(by the way, i think it's Gandhi, not Ghandi)