[Bobboau]

oh, come on, I'm not saying the show sucks now or anything, I'm able to just ignore **** like that as it's so common, but I am a bit disapionted. but come on... the cylons went there to bring there order to the savage humans (US went to Iraq to bring democracy, or at least that's what the people were told), they occupy it with no problem but an "insurgency" quickly shows up causeing a slow but constant amout of pain to the invulnerable occupiers, while the cylons wonder why there constant tourture of prisoners isn't helping them win the "hearts and minds" of the Ira..Colonials.

come on, seriously, are your going to deny it?

[Mefustae]

I'm not denying parallels, as they are rather obvious. What I am denying is that the writers are simply lifing headlines from Iraq and used them to construct this entire story-arc.

There have been plenty of instances of hostile occupations throughout history, and there have been plenty of instances of resistance towards said occupations. It depends on the person, really. When they describe the occupation and insurgency, you think Iraq, while I think WW2 France and the French Resistance of the time. When they talk about 'winning the hearts and minds' of the people, you again think Iraq, while I think Vietnam. Granted, you see Iraq when you watch, and there's nothing wrong with that, but as stated earlier; according to RDM Iraq played a surprisingly small part in crafting the story.

[Rictor]

I agree. What applies to Iraq also applies to pretty much every occupation/insurgency in history. They all follow a similar plot with similar events and circumstances. I mean, show me one occupation without a resistance. Show me one occupation without collaborators, torture, cerfews, bombings and so on. There absolutely are parrallels, but they're not 1:1 and just ripping off the headlines.

[Bobboau]

all I was remarking at was the brazenness of it, the overly obviusness, everytime one of the sorts of lines is read, I can almost sence a slight pause, they never fit, and it's like the actor came out of charicter to deliver it, that was one such occasion.

[Ford Prefect]

But that "brazenness" is largely perceived because we're living through one such event. People in the future might see this and find it eerily prescient. (As depressing a notion as that is.)

[Bobboau]

let me put it this way, if they would have called it a resistance, I would have no problem, I would have no point, if they called it a gorilla war, a revolt, an upriseing, a subversion, a coup, then there would be no problem, but they used the term 'insurgency', you never used to hear that term, but it's a very commonly heard term these days, the term coined (well sort of) by suporters of the Iraq war to make the people we were fighting there seem like a more bad guy than they would be if they would have been called rebels or resistance fighters. they are useing MANY terms and phrases that are quite specific to the Iraq war and the spin around it.

[Mefustae]

let me put it this way, if they would have called it a resistance, I would have no problem, I would have no point, if they called it a gorilla war, a revolt, an upriseing, a subversion, a coup, then there would be no problem, but they used the term 'insurgency', you never used to hear that term, but it's a very commonly heard term these days, the term coined (well sort of) by suporters of the Iraq war to make the people we were fighting there seem like a more bad guy than they would be if they would have been called rebels or resistance fighters. they are useing MANY terms and phrases that are quite specific to the Iraq war and the spin around it.

Flawed arguement.

In‧sur‧gen‧cy  /ɪnˈsɜrdʒənsi/   [in-sur-juhn-see]
noun, plural.
1.   the state or condition of being insurgent.
2.   insurrection against an existing government, usually one's own, by a group not recognized as having the status of a belligerent.
3.   rebellion within a group, as by members against leaders.

Forgive me, but I don't see 'Iraq' anywhere in that entry. Now, it's possible the writers use the term because, as you said, it's commonly used these days and when someone hears it, they instantly think 'armed uprising against an occupying force', threby further clarifying the role of the group. But that's a long way from 'this is Iraq on another planet, choke on it!'. It's also worth noting that they have used other terms for the resistance, but only 'insurgency' stands out because you're looking for it.

Should the word be off-limits unless you're specifically alluding to Iraq?

[Bobboau]

they also use "hearts and minds of the people" just out of random cowink-e-dink.

[Bobboau]

actualy, I think I can sum this up better with:

[WMCoolmon]

The rest of the Cylon fleet is probably patrolling the 12 or so planets of the colonies, overseeing the breeding farms, preventing Pegasus and Galactica from coming back, etc.

Plus from the way they're talking about it, it sounds like a certain amount of resources have been allocated for the New Caprica operation. The fact that we only see a few Cylon models compared to the dozens on the Colonies seems to imply that. I'm sure the Cylons are fully capable of surrounding the colony with a wall of Centurions, but there wouldn't be much point to that because at a certain point, the humans will have lost all free will and there would be no point to keeping them alive.

[Mefustae]

The rest of the Cylon fleet is probably patrolling the 12 or so planets of the colonies, overseeing the breeding farms, preventing Pegasus and Galactica from coming back, etc.

According to Cavil, the Cylons have left the 12 Colonies for "greener pastures". What that means is up for debate, but he made it pretty clear that they've left  the Colonies behind and gone about their business.

Plus from the way they're talking about it, it sounds like a certain amount of resources have been allocated for the New Caprica operation.

To me, it sounds like a sub-group of the greater Cylon race, a group of particular models who cajoled the Cylon leadership into giving them a portion of the fleet, and resuming the search for Humanity in order to mend relations and form an alliance for the betterance of both species.

[Kosh]

I've long maintained that the Cylons don't really have that much, and that they would never have stood a chance against the Colonies without the compromised Command Navigation Protocol. We've never known just what the total of their forces amounts to. For all we know they are at the end of their tether.

It was stated that they were just exploring when they ran into that radiation signature from Cloud nine's nuke. They are also a very long way from Cylon space. Since they are just an explorer group, they clearly have limited resources.

[Ashrak]

so essentially if the beast and the bucket can pwn 5 or so basestars theyr home free

[aldo_14]

let me put it this way, if they would have called it a resistance, I would have no problem, I would have no point, if they called it a gorilla war, a revolt, an upriseing, a subversion, a coup, then there would be no problem, but they used the term 'insurgency', you never used to hear that term, but it's a very commonly heard term these days, the term coined (well sort of) by suporters of the Iraq war to make the people we were fighting there seem like a more bad guy than they would be if they would have been called rebels or resistance fighters. they are useing MANY terms and phrases that are quite specific to the Iraq war and the spin around it.

The phrase 'Insurgency' is not and has never been specific to the Iraq war.  Hell, the Maoists in Nepal, or guerillas in Kashmir were being called insurgents well before the war in Iraq, for example.  It's just that the term has been made perhaps been made familiar to a the less educated and world-aware parts of the US population as a consequence of Iraq - because how many of the worlds' insurgencies was the US public aware of before the one in Iraq?

However, with specific regard to the whole Iraq thing, i believe (but I can't find the quote, nuts) Richard D. Moore has went and said Iraq was a touchstone but not the only influence; that Iraq is a point of familiarity, a source of questions to ask (although Vichy France was also noted as a strong inspiration), but not necessarily the answers.  It'd be pretty hard to have any depiction of a resistance without people drawing parallels to modern events, though; if there wasn't the current ****storm in Iraq and Afghanistan, people would  be citing Palestine.  If not that, then Kashmir or the Cuban rebellion.... there's always a reference or connotation to be found, whether past or present, because these types of events are actually pretty synonymous with human history.

[BlackDove]

a gorilla war,

Gorilla wars for the win.

[Nuke]

what does ape warefare have to do with battlestar galactica?

[BlackDove]

I don't know, ask Bob. After all, he didn't write guerrilla warfare, he wrote gorilla warfare, so, I found that interesting.

[Unknown Target]

I just wanna see a big space battle next episode...
And this whole "controversy" about BSG following the Iraq war is A) stupid, B) pointless, C) possibly wrong, D) possibly correct, and E) stupid.
Oops, did I repeat myself again?

[Ford Prefect]

I just wanna see a big space battle next episode...
And this whole "controversy" about BSG following the Iraq war is A) stupid, B) pointless, C) possibly wrong, D) possibly correct, and E) stupid.
Oops, did I repeat myself again?

Why is it that whenever a discussion becomes purely academic people decide it's pointless and stupid? We're talking about our interpretations of a show-- lay off.

[Mefustae]

He does have a point. Granted, it was an acedemic argument, but it sorta went south of the border when gorillas came up. Twice.