Independence, as history demonstrates,
Requires two things:
A Declaration and
An army to back it up.
(That’s the hard part.)
Bangladesh had it. Biafra did not.
Israel lacked it in 70 but had it in 1948.
The Kurds thought they had it last week but were crushed by the hitherto hapless army of Iraq.
Catalonia was unaware of the requirement.
(Bless its heart.)
Read More:
Iraqi Forces Sweep Into Kirkuk, Checking Kurdish Independence Drive [The New York Times]
Here in Catalonia, People No Longer Feel Like They Live in a Democracy [The Independent UK]
Separate Catalans Retreat as Spanish Leaders Quash Bid for Independence [The Washington Post]
Pesach Rotem was born and raised in New York and now lives in the village of Yodfat in northern Israel. He received his B.A. from Princeton University and his J.D. from St. John’s University. His poems have been published in more than a dozen literary journals including Chiron Review, Natural Bridge, and Voices Israel.
