The Military Strategy on Afghanistan in Just 16 Characters

[tekisui]

Source: South Bend Tribune

''By May 1928 the basic principles of guerilla warfare...had already been evolved; that is, the sixteen-character formula: The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue."

Mao Tse-tung, 1936

Not many of the Taliban guerillas in Afghanistan have read Mao on guerilla warfare, but then, they knew how to do it anyway. The current crop of officers in the Western armies that are fighting them don't seem to have read their Mao either, which is a more serious omission. The generation before them certainly did.

Mao Tse-tung didn't invent guerilla warfare, but he did write the book on it. The "sixteen-character formula" sums it up: Never stand and fight, just stay in business and wear the enemy down. "The ability to run away is the essence of the guerilla," as Mao put it — and that is why the much-ballyhooed battle for Marjah and Nad Ali, two small towns in Afghanistan's Helmand province, is irrelevant to the outcome of the war.

Breathless reports of the battle by embedded journalists have filled the American and European media for the past two weeks, as if winning it might make a difference. The truth is that some of the local Taliban fighters have been left to sell their lives as dearly as possible, while most have been pulled back or sent home to await recall. "The enemy advances; we retreat."

Mao didn't invent guerilla warfare; he was merely a very successful practitioner who tried to codify the rules. Afghans don't really need instruction in it, since that has been the hill-tribes' style of warfare since time immemorial. The only new element in the equation, since the 1940s, is that these wars have almost all ended in victory for the guerillas.

more: http://www.southbendtribune.com/article/20100302/Opinion/3020367/-1/googleNews

[gratuitous]

1. Irrelevant?!

Buncha dirty fuckin' hippies in Indiana.

[unhappycamper]

2. America is a war mongering nation.

Take a look at our history.

Early settlers used smallpox and other European diseases to clear land for God-fearing christians.

Manifest Destiny = kill the Indians and anyone else who stands in the way of making 'Our Great Nation'.

We waged war against Mexico for Texas and California.

Wounded Knee.

We waged war on black people until the 20th century.

We did a number on Central American during the banana wars to insure our corporations were 'safe'.

Cuba.

We 'took on' Vietnam for 14 years until Congress just said 'No'.

We are currently waging occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan for no good reason. None.

[HereSince1628]

3. I've thought of fighting guerrilla war to be a lot like losing to cancer

Live for decades in a manner that quietly contributes to the abuse and dysfunction of your cellular cycle.
Don't ever see a physician until there is an acute problem.
Attack it everywhere killing good along with bad and making the victim weaker and weaker.
Do surgery when masses accumulate to operable size.
Accept that the fight can't be won.
Do palliative care.
Console the caregivers.
Finally, medical metastasis = move on to the next cancer victim.

[NYC_SKP]

4. Guerilla Warfare dies, it disappears, it is no friend to the inhabitants. Eventually...

...there will be none.

The question is what efforts on our behalf can hasten its demise.

I'm not among the DU members who have valuable experience in Southeast Asia and other places where we fought guerillas.

I hope they chime in on this thread.

:patriot: