> This is simply bizarre. Nothing _ever_ has 90% support. There would be
> unimaginable difficulties in achieving anything like coordinated action
> by even 25% of the population. Major change comes from the action of
> minorities, with the bulk of the population (quite sensibly) remaining
> passive.
I didn't mean the 90% figure to be scientifically accurate. I just meant that if a large majority of the population wanted the coalition forces to leave the country, they could force it to leave by refusing any cooperation with it (as at least some of the Iraqi police and fledgling army seem to have been doing). I was inspired to this idea by listening to the review of the South African freedom struggle which NPR News has been running this week. It might even be easier to do in a case like Iraq, because the goal would be to get a foreign occupying power out of the country (similarly to the case of India), whereas in South Africa, the apartheid system was not a result of a foreign invasion, but imposed by the government of the country.
Perhaps a full-scale non-cooperation movement has not happened in Iraq because no one who has enough leadership stature has organized it, and perhaps the culture does not contain the idea of that kind of movement, or is not conducive to it. In any case, it is obviously not for an outsider like me to pronounce on what kind of movement the Iraqis should or should not create.
As for major change being produced by minorities rather than majorities, it is certainly true that in most cases, whether the movement for change is nonviolent or violent, a minority of the population gets involved in the down and dirty action, because it is very dangerous and difficult. But if by the bulk of the population remaining "(quite sensibly) remaining passive" you mean that the majority is not supportive of the movement, then you are saying that it is an undemocratic movement, which is forced on the majority. I don't think you want to advocate that.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ Belinda: Ay, but you know we must return good for evil. Lady Brute: That may be a mistake in the translation.
-- Sir John Vanbrugh: The Provok’d Wife (1697), I.i.