Posted on 08/23/2017 7:19:07 AM PDT by Enlightened1
Historically speaking has any Empire won a war of counter insurgency? I'm hearing this talk about Afghanistan, and do not know the answer?
I think the odds are not good when you think of the American Revolution, Vietnam, Kashmir, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc.. and an added bonus the "rules of engagement".
For the record, I am very strong President Trump supporter. Love the guy and will support him 100%.
Just looking for good answers. Thanks!
Yes.
The Romans beat the Hebrews in the Bar Kokhba revolt.
To defeat an insurgency, you can follow the Roman recipe.
interesting footnote: one area of trouble they ran into was in what is now Afghanistan with the precursors to the Taliban. Used the the same tactics listed above, worked.
As far as i can tell in history, its the only time anyone has actually established anything remotely like peace in that place, for any length of time.
The Spanish Civil War comes to mind.
You will note that survival required treating the press as the combatants they are.
Chechnya, Carthage, Constantinople.
>>To defeat an insurgency, you can follow the Roman recipe.
You must follow it.
Yes.
But we don’t have the guts to win that way.
As a Scripture Scholar who dabbles in History via Biblical History, I would think the question a difficult one to answer, especially if one is looking for odds rather than a single example, for two reasons:
1) History tends to be written by the victors, and so unsuccessful insurgencies would be more easily submerged in the mists of time.
2) Definition of terms: what constitutes an insurgency (the Scots under Bonny Prince Charlie?); and what constitutes success—both for the insurgents and for the ones putting down the insurgency (the Irish rebelled multiple times against the English, and for a long time England held on to the whole of Ireland, and England still has a foothold).
The Jews rebelled multiple times against the Romans. There is now a Jewish state—whether there is still a Roman state is more debatable.
I guess the modern day version would be nuke it from orbit?
The only problem with that is if we want to use Afghanistan as a Forward Operating Base for Iran and China?
That way we will have Iran and China pretty much surrounded.
Thanks too.
It is not a matter of counter-insurgency, it is a matter of what our goal is and whether we are to use the tools at hand to carry it out. We cannot defeat Islamic terrorists, for example, is we still see Islam as a “religion of peace”. We need to draw a line and simply kill the enemy. Give no quarter to them. We cannot allow them to gain a foothold, to undermine us. Afghanistan is a problem, Pakistan is bigger one. We need to be consistent, kill the enemy, stop nation building. Once the enemy is dead, if there is anyone left, maybe we can help this rebuild. It worked in Japan and Germany, it can work today.
Or, Iran and China will have us boxed in.
Great points! Thank you!
This is why we need India and Russia.
Britain, Malaysia, 1959.
Not without a brutality that most Americans would not accept, and not without massive occupation and without installing a brutal puppet ruler.
The Council on Foreign Relations formula for counter-insurgency will never work.
The real question is how to stop the invasion of America by hostile foreigners?
This seems to have a change from Nation Building to “Let’s go kill those M/Fs that killed our friends.” Not that it’s a bad thing though.
All good points and thank you.
The British empire put down many insurgencies. They were quite good at it.
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