our war - bbc
- Thread starter Ali
- Start date
That's impressive. My first word was 'car' and I didn't say that until I was over 12 months old.
Not entirely true - we have won a few guerrilla wars - The Boer War and The Malayan Emergency come to mind off the top of my head.
The only way to win a guerrilla war is to cut the guerrillas off from the people who they need to support them. We did this in South Africa/Malaya by rounding up the local populace and putting them into guarded camps and controlled the food supply. The guerrillas were cut off and starved into submission and gave in.
Only problem is that that sort of tactic is no longer politically acceptable - especially since in the boer war, the camps were called "concentration camps". Another great British Invention there...
As for the Taleban - they can not win the war. But they can't lose either.
All the Taleban have to do is go home and wait for the Western Forces to leave and then start again. The Afghan Establishment is completely corrupt and riddled with tribal sectarianism. The concept of the Nation State does not exist outside of Kabul - the rest of Afghan society owes it's only alliegence to their own tribe. Just as happened when the Russians withdrew, when the foreign invaders have gone the Afghans will end up in another civil war for tribal dominence.
Sadly, we broke the Montgommery's second rule of Warfare (Never Invade Afghanistan). You though we'd learn from the previous three attempts....
The Taliban can't win by simply going home and waiting for the coalition to leave. They then run the risk of the coalition actually doing some good and God forbid improving the lives of the people there. In a strange way, getting blown to crap with excessively large weapons is the best thing the Taliban can do at this point. They will never win a straight up, military fight, but as long as there are more civilian casualties than dead Taliban, they are actually winning. They must be seen as being the only game in town when it comes to taking a stand against the infidels.
This doesn't mean that they make no mistakes. The dumbest thing they have been doing recently is the suicide bomb attacks on the civilians. That's usually not the best way to make them like you. In that sense they are just as tunnel visioned as many in the coalition.
It's anybody's guess as to who will win this in the current status quo.
Oh, even Kipling had a thing or two to say about A'stan. It basically boiled down to "Don't go there dude".
At the end of the day, you cannot kill off an idea!!
Hitler is dead yet Nazism still exists. Its a losing battle. However I do agree that its disgusting the way troops are treated by public etc. comes to something when some regiments have to parade with Live ammo for fear of public attacks!
Hitler is dead yet Nazism still exists. Its a losing battle. However I do agree that its disgusting the way troops are treated by public etc. comes to something when some regiments have to parade with Live ammo for fear of public attacks!
got to say this is the most emotional thing i have ever seen and i have decided to start to support support for heroes and will start raising money as soon as and have donated some of my ££ already but this has really made me think lots of things through and put a different view on my life and the army.
i must say this has really effected me in a good way and i will now do what i can to support our boys
many thanks for sharing this Alli
i must say this has really effected me in a good way and i will now do what i can to support our boys
many thanks for sharing this Alli