Post by flightoficarus on Jul 14, 2016 23:39:11 GMT -6
How do you win a guerilla war? This seems to be something western militaries have forgotten. Vietnam, Iraq, Afganistan, and Somalia to name a few were either defeats or unresolved after more than a decade of occupation. If there is one thing I learned about war it's that it should be resolved as soon as possible. Continuous war saps public and political will quickly. You need will to fight a war. Vietnam dragged on for so long America ran out of will to fight the war. Iraq dragged on for so long America had to pull out the troops. Afganistan has been a battle ground for nearly 20 years. How long until we tire of seeing coffins drapped with American flags and run away from there too? It's a tragedy when something so terrible goes on for so long. War is a nescessity sometimes, but when it happens we should wash our hands with it as soon as possible. Do everything in your power to win.
A guerilla war is a war of hearts as much as it is a war of combatants. In Vietnam and in later wars, the insurgents rule the countryside, and occupiers rule the cities. The only exception to this is remote fire bases and easily ambushed patrols. The guerillas wear no uniforms and know the land. They can dissapear faster than a conventional army can react. However, they have one weakness, they derive sustenance from the civilians. Whoever has the civilians on their side will eventually win. The US military knows this and tries to get the people to work with them. The Viet Cong, Mujahudeen, Al-Qaeda, etc also know this. They used any means to get the people to work with them, even fear.
Getting the urban population to work with you is easy. They're all concentrated in reletively small areas and easy to keep isolated from extortion from the bad guys. But the ones in rural areas is a whole different kettle of fish. We don't have the manpower to keep a significant prescence in every single town and village. So the only option is patrols. The people won't cooperate because they know once the Americans leave, they're screwed. As I established, they're too widely scattered to support. So what do you do?
One solution is scorched earth. Just exterminate the rural population and knock down all the villages. Then let the guerillas wither on the vine. Starving guerillas get desperate and run to the cities where the superior army kills them. Of course this isn't an option. We're not freakin Nazis. Thank god.
The other is to round up the rural population and concentrate them in smaller, easy to police areas. That way, you isolate them from the guerillas. The guerillas no longer have a source of supplies. Then move the army in from all sides and isolate the guerillas into smaller and smaller areas and pinch them out. Of course this is very had to do. You need a lot of boots on the ground for this. You also need to supply all those boots as well as the people you moved. After isolating the guerillas apply maximum violence instantly or as instantly as possible. Hold back no reserves, send in tanks, apcs, artillery, and close air support. The aim is to destroy the enemy so fast they have no opportunity to inflict large numbers of casualities on the attacking force.
Or you can just have endless skirmishes with scattered patrols until one side tires. This will result in a years long war. That rarely ends well for the occupation force.
A guerilla war is a war of hearts as much as it is a war of combatants. In Vietnam and in later wars, the insurgents rule the countryside, and occupiers rule the cities. The only exception to this is remote fire bases and easily ambushed patrols. The guerillas wear no uniforms and know the land. They can dissapear faster than a conventional army can react. However, they have one weakness, they derive sustenance from the civilians. Whoever has the civilians on their side will eventually win. The US military knows this and tries to get the people to work with them. The Viet Cong, Mujahudeen, Al-Qaeda, etc also know this. They used any means to get the people to work with them, even fear.
Getting the urban population to work with you is easy. They're all concentrated in reletively small areas and easy to keep isolated from extortion from the bad guys. But the ones in rural areas is a whole different kettle of fish. We don't have the manpower to keep a significant prescence in every single town and village. So the only option is patrols. The people won't cooperate because they know once the Americans leave, they're screwed. As I established, they're too widely scattered to support. So what do you do?
One solution is scorched earth. Just exterminate the rural population and knock down all the villages. Then let the guerillas wither on the vine. Starving guerillas get desperate and run to the cities where the superior army kills them. Of course this isn't an option. We're not freakin Nazis. Thank god.
The other is to round up the rural population and concentrate them in smaller, easy to police areas. That way, you isolate them from the guerillas. The guerillas no longer have a source of supplies. Then move the army in from all sides and isolate the guerillas into smaller and smaller areas and pinch them out. Of course this is very had to do. You need a lot of boots on the ground for this. You also need to supply all those boots as well as the people you moved. After isolating the guerillas apply maximum violence instantly or as instantly as possible. Hold back no reserves, send in tanks, apcs, artillery, and close air support. The aim is to destroy the enemy so fast they have no opportunity to inflict large numbers of casualities on the attacking force.
Or you can just have endless skirmishes with scattered patrols until one side tires. This will result in a years long war. That rarely ends well for the occupation force.