🚀 go-pugleaf

John M Atkinson (jatkinso@ANTISPAMgmu.edu) wrote:
: %And we were trying to take over Vietnam?  Last time I checked we never
: %invaded North Vietnam (although it would have solved alot if we had).

: Nope-we were the defending side at the time-invited in by the local government
: to restore order.

Exactly, as we were invited into Somalia and then ran out with our tails
between our legs when a bunch of thugs started killing our people.
Therefore, you *can* win a war with just some ragged partisians.  Call
Somalia a Police action if it makes your feel better, but the fact remains
we left, then won (insert Politically Correct term for killing other
people in an organized and violent manner that involves armies)
 
: %: Name a war where that occured.
: %
: %The Mongols sacking Strang, they went around the other sides army,
: %destroyed they're supplies (400 miles across a desert no less) - saked
: %their enemies capital, and starved their enemies to death.

: All that is is properly identifying the center of gravity.  In other words, they
: used their conventional army to waltz in and attack what mattered.  Not the
: army, but the capital.  That's basic Clausewitz.

Right, the cut off the head and won the war without having to mass
firepower and play the conventional warfare game (Traditional force on
force).  So, you can win a war by cutting off the head of your opponent.  

: %And lets not forget the lessons of C4I attacks, precision bombing, and
: %other methods of war in depth.  War is not linear, war has depth and a
: %smart tactician understands that if you cut off the head the body will
: %die.

: Again, identify the center of gravity and attack it.  All else is a secondary
: distraction.

Exactly, I'm not sure what you're disagreeing with.  Perhaps you think you
need an army to do this - I'm arguing that this could be accomplished thru
unconventional forces (Special Ops, Partisians, what have you)

: %But he didn't overthrow an governments, he changed the law.  Ghandi
: %overthrew the British.  So, no by my recoking that does not make Martin
: %Luther King an Insurgent.  

: Ghandi didn't overthrow the British, he got them out of the country-a slight
: difference.

So we didn't overthrow the British either then, by your reconning - we
just got them to leave.  Whatever, the fact remains that his tactics
worked, and he had no outside help.


M. Shinn
Infantry