From American Merc: But winning the war isn't about destruction, it is about making the enemy irrelevant to the outcome. You can do that by destroying the Army, but that rarely happens in an insurgency. We never defeated the British Army in our Revolution, we simply defeated the small portion that was stationed on the Continent. The British eventually took their ball and went home until the War of 1812.
You win a war the same way you win a fight: You make the other side change their mind about fighting (best case) or you destroy their ability to fight.
You will not break the will of the enemy by targeting and killing their wives and children at home or school. Kill my wife and what you have done is unleash me to be the most brutal bastard you've ever seen until I am dead, and you've removed any moral leash as well. If I can't reach you, I'll find a way to bring you into the open, even if that means I eat your dog on the front steps of your home.
By the same token: The gal who is working as a clerk at City Hall who processes the arrest warrants for the Gestapo - she isn't a wife or daughter that day. She is a tool of the enemy, doing the work of the enemy, keeping the machine of the enemy running. When she no longer processes those papers, the ability of the enemy is diminished.
Yes, Virginia, Evil people can have a vagina, too.
Understand the differences and work the nuances into whatever matrix you have built for yourself.
Here's the link.
Kerodin
III
Just came across these words today. They seem to apply:
ReplyDelete"If the wages of sin are death, it doesn't matter if you're working the counter, or if you're the executive of Evil Incorporated, you still get a check on pay day."
via Flashback by Archer Garrett
It would seem that american Mercenary ignores the fact that swat teams routinely hit the wrong houses and kill women and children, under color of law, with impunity. He also ignores the facts of Waco and Ruby Ridge , in which, innocent women and children were EXECUTED. the govt makes it a point to target peoples families to purposely terrorize people, and inspire fear. It is straight out of Uncle Joe Stalin and cousin Adolf's play book. So are we to believe that the bad guys are to be free from reprisal? I find it highly ironic, and very naive, that Am Merc wants to play by geneva convention rules while opposition forces are allowed to target anyone they choose with scorched earth policy. I don not propose to be like Ghengis Khan but if one goes to a street fight one must leave the Marquis of Queensbury behind. And Nancy Pelosi and Diann Feinstein are female and seem to be leading their cause.
ReplyDeleteYep. And THEY got NO problem leaning all over your women and kids....just another "tool" in their box I suppose...
DeleteAll AmMerc is saying is whacking a LEO's wife and kids is a sure way to make him and everyone he works with fight to the death for revenge. Not too hard to understand (no insult intended). At the same time, keeping the target list limited to the less innocent on the OpFor side makes them long for home and a desire to stay there and out of the fight.
ReplyDeleteDaniel
Well that's a clueless post.
ReplyDeleteKilling a man's wife and kids isn't about the man. It's about the other men, and convincing them not to back him up. One guy alone is easy to take down, especially if he's out of his head with rage.
Also
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-01-07/news/mn-13892_1_soviets
All the internet-tough-guy acting in the world doesn't actually go very far.
This is most definitely one of those double-edged sword topics.
ReplyDeleteIf I am fighting in a Fire Team consisting of me, John, Joe & Lil Joe and they see OpFor put my wife's head on a stake, and they see that I am now hunting free-range - are they likely to say to themselves "Hey, I'd better throw my guns in the river and behave so my wife doesn't get her head on a stake..."
or
"Hey, we'd better hurry the hell up and crush OpFor because those bastards will put all of our heads - wives included - on stakes if we don't win!"
That's a question one can't know in advance about other men. Each man can only decide that one in the moment.
Personally - I'd bet on the latter - at least about guys I'd have on *my* Fire Team.
K