Non European forces proving themselves Vs European military might

[celtan]

Actually Gonzalo,

After Lidice and Oradour, partisans were not allowed to hide within the villages, and no support came from the french civilians.

The US tried good treatment and help given to the VC infiltrated villages in Nam', to no effect. The fear of getting killed by the guerrillas was always more powerful than any gratitude. At the end, fear always won the day.

One of the objectives of guerrillas is precisely to provoke attacks on civilians by the regular army. So, it's a tight rope that military commanders have to thread. Reprisals, when done, must be precise and exclusively to the civilian group involved, and this must be publicly advertised.

Follow Israeli troopers as they now use the very same basic tactics once used by their former nemesis, the Nazis.

M

Originally Posted by Gonzalo G

I agree on the general idea, but terrorism and guerrilla are completely diferent methods of fight, though some groups uses the combination of the two. Terrorism involved the killing of innocents, undiscriminatedly, and guerrilla are military operations against selected military targets, not to kill innocents, but to hit the military or police enemy, in order to take control of the government or/and expell an invader. Bombing civil airports is terrorism. Useless and uncessesary terrorism. Conducting military attacks and disapearing after the attack on a foreign invader, or government troops, is guerrilla. Very different strategies, tactics, means and purposes...and the ends does not justify the means, as the nature of the means always conditions the nature of the ends. Wrong means usually (or always) desvirtuates the ends. The reprisals of the germans or the allies over the civil population over a guerrilla attack, are pure terrorism, as innocent civilians are targeted to extermination, which does not stops necesarily further killings (it could provoke, instead, more rebellion), and damage the moral stature of an army. And moral stature usually is not taken on account by unsensible military men, but it means someting in a long term, even in a practical manner. Wars are lost due the discredit of the governments, or the heat against it´s armies. Governments can fall due the discredit of their wars and their intolerance. It is something terrorists can obtain, when, and if, imprudent governments overreact to their attacks. All is a complex game. But pure terrorism is revulsive.