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How come nowadays America is so bad at combatting guerilla warfare? The whole country won the revolutionary war because the same tactic. Now a days we suck at it. What has changed since rev to 2day? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 days ago by Patnou@lemmy.world to c/askhistorians@lemmy.world

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[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's about goals.

The whole point of guerrilla tactics is asymmetry. It's a smaller force with less resources maximizing impact.

In order to work against it, you have to go hard.

Going hard means wrecking support and resources. You know, like dumping agent orange, white phosphor, mustard gas, that kind of war crime level brutality.

If you do that, then if the goal isn't making enemies and spending large amounts of money, you're fucked. Because you'll spend billions and make enemies not only in the target region, but all around it, and for generations after.

Given enough budget and the freedom to destroy everything, guerilla tactics are easy to counter.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 7 points 2 days ago

Even that isn't generally enough to subdue guerilla warfare. If it was, there would no longer be a 'Kurdish Problem'.

The actual way to work against it to offer a peace on acceptable (not necessarily favorable) terms to the partisans, that seems in good faith. Guerilla warfare rarely, if ever, peters out because of sustained military pressure. Military pressure can force them to the negotiating table, but if the occupying power has an insane position like "Kurds aren't real" or "We don't negotiate with terrorists", that won't help.