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To: getoffmylawn
there's been much too much "the Serbs are evil" and not nearly enough criticism of their incompetent and outdated tactics of counter-insurgency

Great point; although when you look at the Serb paramilitaries, its hard to see any daylight between them and evil. However, you are right on the mark when it comes to the Yugo army.

When fighting the KLA, their outmoded doctrine & poorly trained small unit leaders prevented them from executing the precise fire and maneuver necessary to close with and destroy guerilla forces. Instead, they stood off and used high volumes of fire--usually of little effect against the KLA who slipped away, but likely to cause significant damage to civilians and their homes and livestock and so on. And of course that had the effect of nudging the affected locals further along the spectrum from staying out of the way to sympathizers to supporters to fighters.

I observed many of the same problems, but even more pronounced, at first hand when the Macedonian military was fighting the ethnic Albanian extremists in FYROM in 2001.

An unfortunate side effect of sending an unprepared military to fight a guerilla opponent is that frustration rises rapidly with realization of the ineffectiveness of your tactics; especially if you are also taking casualties. And that frustration provides a fertile breeding ground for atrocities--especially when combined with a lack of professional junior leaders who can enforce discipline. Think My Lai.

Interestingly, Serb tactics the year before last in the Presevo region seemed much improved--constant day & night operations, dispersed small unit patrolling & ambushes. So they're studying lessons learned and getting better. Hopefully they'll next use that stuff for real working with us in the Mid-East!

274 posted on 09/29/2003 7:12:49 PM PDT by mark502inf
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To: mark502inf
An unfortunate side effect of sending an unprepared military to fight a guerilla opponent is that frustration rises rapidly with realization of the ineffectiveness of your tactics; especially if you are also taking casualties. And that frustration provides a fertile breeding ground for atrocities--especially when combined with a lack of professional junior leaders who can enforce discipline. Think My Lai. >>

'Ceptin My Lai was never *policy.* Fact is, about three or four weeks before the fall of Srebrenica, the BSA strategic leadership gathered together for a staff meeting that went something like this: "This briefing concerns Plan Black, our operation to carry out the total elimination of the Bosnian Muslim military capabilities, which will be commenced upon completion of the fall of Srebrenica. It involves a battalion of special police units who will execute the prisoners and use 25 pieces of earth moving equipment to bury the corpses. Next slide please."

The thing generating the "Serbs Are Evil" posts (which they aren't; only those who committed the war crimes are--but thems a LOT of people) is the YOU'RE A MUSLIM! YOU'RE A MUSLIM! YOU'RE A MUSLIM! chant that certain twits scream here anytime anyone doesn't type the lyrics to the Serbian national anthem.
277 posted on 09/30/2003 3:38:21 AM PDT by Ronly Bonly Jones
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To: mark502inf
Sheesh. The Serbs and Macedonians both using outmoded tactics. It sounds like they were using a play book from Tito's days. Great. Something else we can blame Tito for ;-)
286 posted on 09/30/2003 2:26:41 PM PDT by getoffmylawn (Strong like bull. Smart like tractor.)
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