If Britain were Iraq, what would it be like?

Its estimated that 100,000 Iraqis were killed as a result of the invasion, war and anarchy between March 2003 and October 2004. That's over 350 per month, the equivalent proportionately of 700 British people. What if 700 people had died in car bombings, grenade and rocket attacks, machine gun spray, and aerial bombardment in Britain last month, and every month for the last two years?

And what if those deaths occurred all over the country, including in London, but mainly in an area roughly forming a triangle between London, South Wales and Lancashire? What if that area gained international notoriety as "the triangle of death"?

What if the Houses of Parliament and the government buildings in Whitehall were constantly taking mortar fire? What if almost nobody in the Foreign Office, Downing Street, or the Ministry of Defence dared venture out of their buildings, and considered it dangerous to go over to the suburbs of north and west London?

What if all the reporters for all the major television and print media were trapped in five-star hotels in London, unable to move more than a few blocks safely, and dependent on stringers to know what was happening in Liverpool and Cardiff? What if the only time they ventured north or west was if they could be embedded with battalions of the occupying foreign army or the British National Guard units the occupiers had set up to police the country?

There are estimated to be some 25,000 guerrillas in Iraq engaged in concerted acts of violence. What if there were private armies totalling 50, 000 men, armed with machine guns, assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, and mortar launchers, hiding out in dangerous urban areas of cities all over the country? What if they completely controlled Bristol, Liverpool, Cardiff, Birmingham, and Manchester, such that local police and the occupying military could not go into those cities? What if the occupying military then drove the residents of Bristol from their homes and razed the city to the ground?

What if, during the past year, the Foreign Secretary (Aqilah Hashemi), the Prince of Wales (Izzedine Salim), and the Attorney General (Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim) had all been assassinated?

What if all the cities in the UK were wracked by a crime wave, with thousands of murders, kidnappings, burglaries, and carjackings in every major city every year?

What if the occupying military's air force routinely (meaning daily or weekly) bombed the slums of Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester and London, as well as other urban areas, attempting to target "safe houses" of "criminal gangs", but inevitably killing a lot of children and little old ladies?

What if, from time to time, the occupying military besieged Canterbury, killing hundreds of armed members of the Christian Resistance Militia? What if entire platoons of the militia holed up in and around Canterbury Cathedral, and were bombarded by warplanes daily, destroying large parts of the graveyard of St Martin's Church and damaging the cathedral? What if the General Synod of the Church of England had to call for a popular march of thousands of believers to converge on the cathedral to stop the occupiers from demolishing it to get at a the militia?

What if there were virtually no commercial air traffic in the country? What if many roads were highly dangerous, especially the M3 from Heathrow to London, and the M40 up to Birmingham? If you got on M40 you would risk being carjacked, kidnapped, or having your car sprayed with machine gun fire. What if no one had electricity for much more than 10 hours a day, and often less? What if it went off at unpredictable times, causing workplaces to grind to a halt? What if major power stations were bombed and disabled at least monthly? What if unemployment hovered around 40%?

What if veterans of groups like the IRA and the UDF were brought in to run the government on the theory that you need a tough guy in these times of crisis?

What if democracy were promised for two years but municipal elections were cancelled and cliques close to the new "president" quietly installed in the town halls as "governors?" What if several of these governors (those of Cardiff and Liverpool for example) were assassinated soon after taking office or resigned when their children were taken hostage by guerrillas?

What if nationwide elections only came finally as a result of mass demonstrations on the streets that forced the hand of the occupier. What if when those elections came turnout was almost non-existent in the war ravaged "triangle of death", leaving the government completely unrepresentative of those parts of the country? What if a serious election campaign had been practically impossible, with candidates subject to death threats and unable to reveal their identity to voters as a result? What if all this had been conducted without any international observation to ensure that the vote was free and fair despite the foreign occupation and ongoing violence?

And what if the leader of the occupying power, say the American President, maintained that the citizens of Britain are, under these conditions, marching with glad hearts toward freedom and democracy?

(This is an adaptation of a post on Juan Cole's website entitled "If America were Iraq, what would it be like?". Professor Cole was not involved with this adaptation of his work, but has agreed to its dissemination. The original can be found)