The Cellar - View Single Post - "We hope the Americans will stay in Iraq forever."

Undertoad · 06-03-2003, 04:13 PM

I saw coverage of the confrontation where the Army was invited in by the local holy dude but the locals somehow became worried that they were gonna come in to some holy location. If anything was clear, it was that the mere presence of rifles wasn't impressive enough to keep the people at bay.

Chances are they understand the dynamic better than we do: the rules of the game are important to them, because it means their survival. They knew those soldiers weren't going to shoot at them; otherwise, they wouldn't have protested that way, that close.

06-03-2003, 04:13 PM	#8
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	I saw coverage of the confrontation where the Army was invited in by the local holy dude but the locals somehow became worried that they were gonna come in to some holy location. If anything was clear, it was that the mere presence of rifles wasn't impressive enough to keep the people at bay. Chances are they understand the dynamic better than we do: the rules of the game are important to them, because it means their survival. They knew those soldiers weren't going to shoot at them; otherwise, they wouldn't have protested that way, that close.