[amprecon]

Watching the coalition free the Iraqis from oppression has made me think about how many other countries which were or are under an oppressive government and yet don't ask for help or have and we won't/can't help them.
I know that they disarm their populations and threaten them against questioning anything.
The former soviet union comes to mind, those people were under the foot of stalin for the longest time and yet so many russians condoned his rule and fought willingly for him. Others I'm sure were forced to fight.
Cuba is another, North Korea, China, and many others are under oppressive rule, are we going after them next?
Did we lose confidence after Viet Nam? Why did Hitler and Pol Pot and the so many other like him have so many followers? Obviously they made lies believable, but after awhile, when there promises didn't come to fruition, why did they still back them? Was mere nationalism/patriotism enough?
What makes certain people in those societies embrace their bad rulers? Do they do it out of fear or do they want to be part of the power structure and it's domineering existence?

[JimP]

If you read you own post, you'll see the answer is in it. Once you've stripped the populace of their arms, how are they to rise up and toss off the yoke of the oppressors?? Also, it isn't a coincidence that in almost every revolution, the actual people siding with the revoultionaries are put to death or somehow discredited. Like Iraq, just how - in a terror regime - were the people supposed to rise up???

Also look to starvation as a management tool. The soviets, Kmer Rouge, etc, used starvation as a tool for getting a compliant populace. Which is also why our anti's protesting against the US are hurting the very people "under the gun". By supporting these terror regimes under the rubric of "free speech", they make it easier for the leaders to continue what they are doing - starve and terrorize the population into submission. The anti's don't like to talk about this stuff though. Pol Pot tended to ruin their little socialist utopian vision of communist revolutions.

[Nightcrawler]

Fear.

Evil will always have followers, those who only desire self gratification, even (often ESPECIALLY) if it's at the expense of others.

Say you live in a third world country. Your life basically bites, and you don't have much of anything. The regime offers to hire you as a thug. You get three squares, some authority, you get to carry a gun, you get to be a big man, you get respect (fear). And all you have to do is kill people. All the raping and pillaging you could want (LITERALLY).

Unfortunately, there are far too many people in this world who give into this temptation.

As for why the rest don't rise up....eventually, I think people resign themselves to their fate. After all, we're hearing the absolute most sickening horror stories come out of Iraq, about what the Reigme did to the people.

How full of the revolutionary spirit would you be if the LAST guy that stood up for the cause got to watch some Fedayeen thugs rape and murder his daughter in front of him, before being killed himself?

[pax]

Who is John Galt?

pax

[Vladimir Berkov]

Human history is a pretty much unended lesson in how humans can adapt to the most vile and horrid conditions.

Plus, as has often been said, people don't go straight from liberty to tyranny. It is gradual, one can see it even here in the US.