Without Power

I read this at Eschaton yesterday, and only today did it occur to me:

There is no power without resistance.

Without the resistance of a "regular army" or even an organized group that our military can decimate, it has no power. It has the power of destruction: of bombs, missiles, bullets, rockets, death brought about in hundred brutal and technological ways.

But it has no power to impose order on the country. It is a paper tiger.

Without the resistance of an opposition, a party clearly calling for the end to the war and an "exit strategy" in Iraq, George Bush no longer has power over public opinion. Polls indicate support for the war is now below 40% in this country, two years after it started. "Support the troops" is no longer synonymous with "support the war." More and more it means "Bring them home."

Which is the reason Karl Rove was in Manhattan, trying to stir up an opposition.

There is no power without resistance.