| Thursday, February 3, 2005 |
01:23 - Scouring of the Shire
http://iraqilibe.blogspot.com/2005/02/iraqi-citizens-kill-5-terrorists.html
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That's how Chris M. characterizes this account of the citizens of an Iraqi town giving back as good as they'd have gotten from the insurgents bent on "punishing" them for voting on Sunday.
'No!' said Merry. 'It's no good "getting under cover". That is just what people have been doing, and just what these ruffians like. They will simply come down in force, corner us, and then drive us out, or burn us in. No, we have got to do something at once.'
'Do what?' said Pippin.
'Raise the Shire!' said Merry. 'Now! Wake all our people! They hate all this, you can see.... They just want a match, though, and they'll go up in fire.'
Tim Blair likens it more to The Magnificent Seven, following from a different account by a Mark Willacy who conducted an interview on Australian ABC TV in which he was asked questions like, "Do you think that is a one off, Mark, or is it a sign perhaps that some Iraqis are no longer sympathetic to the insurgents' cause?"
Just perhaps. Maybe some.
I don't think anyone's naïve enough to expect Iraq to follow a storybook script of any kind. But these stories do come from somewhere, reflecting some fundamental impulse deep in the human character... and Iraq's now in one of those "building" phases, analogous to the Wild West, where there do appear to be great days ahead: high stakes, a reward that's been earned. People are willing now to fight to ensure it won't be stolen away from them now that they've had a sight of it.
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Brian Tiemann
