One measure of popularity of guerrillas is whether or not the local population whom guerrillas claim to support actually protect the guerrillas from the occupation authorities or try to turn the guerrillas into the hands of the occupation authorities. The more, and the higher quality of, intelligence about the guerrillas the occupation authorities get from the local population, resulting in successful prevention of attacks or arrests of attackers, the less popular the guerrillas are.
I suppose that, given enough military might, it may be possible to crush even popular guerrillas, though not very easily. What is certain is that unpopular guerrillas are not likely to last very long.
At 8:59 PM -0400 9/23/03, Doug Henwood wrote:
>>Also, we should take into account other organized political
>>actions, such as marches, rallies, petitions, and so on.
>
>How much of that is going on?
I can't read Arabic, but even just looking at English-language newspapers, I've found a number of protests, almost from day one of the occupation of Iraq. I don't know if anyone has counted a number of protests, though, and I'd be interested in any research on the subject.
At 8:59 PM -0400 9/23/03, Doug Henwood wrote:
>How much does the U.S. allow?
I'm sure the US government isn't happy seeing Iraqi protesters, especially if protesters are squarely against the foreign occupation, and I've seen reports of US troops firing on Iraqi protesters, too, but Iraqis don't seem cowed into submission. -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>