Plastic Cat looks at the current Iraqi situation and compares it to the British quelling of Irish rebellions in the past. Of note is the gentle mockery of British media blindness to uprisings and the citizens to which the rebellion becomes a kind of feverish religious experience that can tip them, the masses, from agnosticism into rebellion.

There are echoes of Ireland in the current situation in Iraq when, almost 90yrs ago, we dealt with our own troubles with occupation. Then as now, a small cadre of rebels with little popular support rose up against an occupying power. The British responded with overwhelming force, killing many hundreds of civilians in the process. Public support only swung behind the uprising when the British began capturing & executing those involved, often in humiliating fashion (James Connolly being shot in a chair since he couldn’t stand). Although the rebellion itself was unsuccessful, it ultimately led to the removal of foreign troops & the establishment of the republic. And to civil war. And to all the troubles in the North. Watching it all unfold in Iraq, there seems to be an analogous train of events in motion. Of course, it doesn’t travel all the way; we never burned & decapitated enemy soldiers, neither side were driven by any overt religious zealotry*, the situation here wasn’t remotely on the scale of the Iraqi one. Nor has there yet been any attempt by the Iraqis to take over the Jacob’s biscuit factory.

It’s an interesting read through.