BTW : Insurgency vs terrorism
[ QUOTE ]
[sarcasticallyInsurgents and terrorists with guns, bombs, mortars and anti-aircraft weapons are really just ghosts so there is no point in our arming our troops as best as possible and teaching them counter-insurgency warfare tactics.
[/ QUOTE ] It would be wrong for the political or military planners to equate in their minds insurgents with terrorists. What you describe above are insurgents, i.e. guerillas. Counter-insurgency warfare is altogether different than "regular" warfare, i.e. a clash between organised armies in the field of battle. (And need I repeat that the U.S. seems to have learned very little from its first-hand counter-insurgency warfare it conducted in places such as Central America and Vietnam? Even in counter-insurgency, the U.S. is behaving like a all -pwoerful giant with a peanut-sized mind.)
And BTW, when the insurgents are using seemingly "terrorist tactics", i.e. blowing up a Kabul discotheque full of civilians (oftentimes intentionally blowing themselves up in the process), this does NOT make the fight against them a fight against terrorism!
No, personally, I would be more concerned with modern terrorism itself. And by that I refer to large scale attacks against civilian targets, possibly targets at home (the home of those perceived as aggressors by the terrorists, e.g. Washington, Manchester, Rome, etc), attacks executed by relatively cheap and small means, using low-technology techniques for communication, command and control, e.g. mail drops, music signals, etc.
Against that enemy, the fight is extremely tougher than fighting the most ferocious insurgent in Afghanistan or Iraq! The importance of intelligence cannot be over-estimated. And that comes in the same package as co-operation across nations and continents among the intelligence and law enforcement agencies of all those committed to combat terror. Which, in turn, precludes unilateralism, arrogance and over-simplification -- but, instead, needs/depends on co-ordination, diplomacy, a dose of humility and a lot of thorough & complex analysis.
However, a lot of people in the United States confuse patience for inaction; controlled aggressiveness for reluctance to fight; and thorough analysis for nerdiness. Good poker players are supposed to know better.
|