After 2 major disastrous insurgent/guerrilla wars do you think it's time for US military to start learning...

Question

how to defeat insurgencies & not spend so much time on conventional warfare?

Answer 1

In my mind there is 1 problem with both Vietnam and Gulf War 2+. That is - the politicians ran the war in both cases. Politico's in both wars were responsible for picking targets and objectives. They were both times afraid of negative media backlash and when there were/are protests, they change(d) the strategy.

There must be an end objective in mind when initiating a war. Military leadership should be in charge of implementing a strategy to achieve that objective. When politico's get involved you get situations like Hamburger Hill and rules of engagement that require soldiers to get blown up by IED's if a Mosque is in sight...

Nobody likes a war, except for the naive and foolish. However, once you are in a war you better finish it decisively. Compare to a bar room brawl. If you punch someone you better be prepared to either knock him out with one punch (good luck) or be prepared to get bloody. If you throw a punch and then stop to ask others if you did the right thing or get consensus from your friends as to what you should do next you're in trouble. It's also impossible to throw a punch and then say "i'm sorry for breaking your nose - lets let bygones be bygones" and expect it to work.

A person is smart - PEOPLE are stupid. Tommy Lee Jones said it best in MIB. GWB in a room with Hussein, the 2 of them alone, would have had a different resolution than when oceans/continents and armies/politicos get in the way. And not just GWB - Hussein's actions would have been dramatically different too.

Sigh. Guess this planet isn't big enough for both of us

Answer 2

the 1st Gulf conflict resulted in a ceasefire contract. under a ceasefire, a conflict could be legally resume to in spite of reason one-side or yet another. As area of that contract, 22 resolutions handed by the United countries putting forward if Saddam broke those resolutions then that should enable persistent protection tension action against Saddam Hussein's Iraq Regime. Saddam broke 19 out of the 22 of those for a decade. Making it valid to attack him every time UN needed. although inspite of this, UN did no longer something approximately it until eventually 9/11 handed off. Saddam has used WMDs interior the previous against his human beings and his pals. undergo in ideas he used chemical gases on the Kurds in 1988? it quite is actual. After 9/11, each and every Intel like Canada, Spain, Germany, uk, Italy and around the planet grow to be asserting Saddam grow to be construction new WMDs. Bush Jr have been given approval from UN and Congress in authorization to bypass to conflict against Iraq. alongside with 18 UN resolutions Saddam broke, it quite is why US-led forces went to Iraq in 2003. although we on no account stumbled on any new WMDs. Why? by fact Saddam certainly faked his WMDs for a decade by fact he did this with a view to scare Iran.

Answer 3

There are certainly those out there with such knowledge - for the right price. I find it hard to believe your military is not working on this. Is it not your special forces' job? There are many ways to do real damage to guerrillas.

And, it also is true, that if a conventional army went in and wiped out all in their path, there could be a chance of winning, but luckily the armies of the West have not the stomach for this, and rightfully so, are afraid of world opinion.

Answer 4

Obviously you have no clue.

The United States military devastated the North Vietnamese but the American people and politicians lost the will to continue.
In Iraq the military is very successful, and again the people and politicians have lost their will to continue.
Guerrilla type warfare is very difficult to deal with but to call the military results of Vietnam and Iraq disastrous is extremely incorrect.

Answer 5

The only way to defeat insurgencies is to kill everything; be so ruthless that when the first private gets boots on the ground they start quaking with fear.

Somehow, I doubt we will do that.

Answer 6

They can defeat the guerrillas the problem is they can't defeat the media and liberals who support the terrorists/guerillas here.

Answer 7

yes it is but i do want to say, gurellia warfare, is these hardest type of warefare tactics to counter...... its nearly impossible to counter a lurking attacker in a group of people who are inocent people so dont judge so quickly

AirsoftDude

Answer 8

Yeah, Bushco needs to get some learnin'