...The NLF (Viet Cong) and the Taliban would like a word with you. You don’t go toe to toe with the US military, you bleed them dry in a people’s protracted war if necessary. In such a situation time is on the side of the guerillas, as their very existence is a continuous threat to the government’s legitimatcy and a humiliation. Each flight of a jet plane or drone, every laser guided missile, every day a ground force has to remain mobilized costs millions of not billions of dollars.

For example, the Taliban would pay some villager $3 to go on top of hill by a military base, unload a mag from a AK47 in the general direction of the base and then immediately leave. The base would then be placed on high alert, search and response teams would have to be mobilized, maybe they’d fly up a helicopter to look around. Of course they’d always find nothing, as the villager had already went home and had dinner while the American soldiers were trampling through the mountains looking for a Taliban strike team that didn’t exist. The Americans would then return back to base tired and demoralized.

Once the base had been declared safe again and all the soldiers had settled in to rest, another villager would come and shoot off another mag at them, forcing them to go through the whole process over again because if it was a strike team they’d be fucked if they ignored it. And they’d do this everyday, week after week, month after month, year after year. Cost for the Taliban? $20 and some 50 year old Soviet military surplus. Cost for the Americans? Hundreds of gallons of fuel, the soldier’s morale, disruption to the base’s function, national pride. Hell if the locals were feeling ambitious maybe they’d leave a few IEDs around a blow up a truck or a guys right leg. That’s another news story back in the states, another asset lost to the quagmire with nothing to show for it. And if some fustrated “operator” decides to take it out on a local Afghan?? Well he’s just made all their male relatives and friends Taliban sympathizers if not fighters. That’s asymmetric warfare in a nutshell right there, done by the best in the business.

Now look at the state of Afghanistan. The Taliban control like 75% of the country, the president has been basically reduced to being the mayor of Kabul, despite the US dumping trillions of dollars and thousands of troops into this conflict. Just in February the American Empire was forced to the negotiation table with the Taliban and is straight up about to run away with it’s tail between its legs.

NOTE: I don't endorse the Taliban or anything like that, they're fundamentalist fascists, but they've kicked the asses of two superpowers and you just gotta hand it to them, they're effective.

(This was initially a response to a comment but I got into the writing move and cranked this out so I think it's worthy of its own post.)

  • WoofWoof91 [comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    at least in Iraq they did, yes.

    Was Iraq as fond of spying on its own citizens as the USA though?

    from experience, something being used on you is maybe the best teacher.

    Fair point

    I live miles away from one of the largest and most important air force bases in the US. I’ve been inside of it multiple times and flown out of it once, I assure you, they don’t have bradleys and the MPs aren’t carrying M-16s. Bases off CONUS are different, naturally.

    Fair enough, but if any revolution gets off the ground, surely they'll step up security at least to the level of bases in friendly countries.
    Just out of curiosity, it isn't Whiteman is it?

    and we’re back to the total lack of defense of ports and airports and rail yards etc

    To hit all of them you will need a hell of a lot of people scattered all across the US

    Do you have any idea how many weapons go missing every year? How many straight-up get sold off by armory staff or just fall off the back of a truck?

    Surely they would react differently to a breakin than to someone skimming guns off the top

    I assure you from experience that they totally work on modern armor

    I'm confused as to how, the way a molotov knocks out a tank is by killing/incapacitating the crew, cooking off the ammunition, or igniting the fuel. How does that happen when the tank is watertight?

      • WoofWoof91 [comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        It was actually us doing the spying for Iraq

        why am I not surprised by that

        in the event of a civil war or revolution the military would fracture and it wouldn’t really matter.

        Once the revolution has built momentum (assuming it isn't dead before that point) I can see that maybe happening, but if you're grabbing those guns early on, when it's a minor insurrection, would they react as if it were wartime?

        If you toss one on the engine deck the burning whatever will work its way into air intakes and set filters on fire and melt wires, belts and hoses; then the tank’s a mobility kill. It would be out of the fight at least until recovered or it would be abandoned in place and destroyed.

        I was lead to believe that would be a difficult shot at the best of times, even more so if you are in danger of being lit up by the coaxial machine gun, or is that wrong?

          • WoofWoof91 [comrade/them]
            ·
            4 years ago

            In the UK I can’t imagine that there is a single patch of land that isn’t at most an hour away by helicopter from the nearest large military post.

            This is mostly true, there are places that would take longer to get to because of how the bases are distributed. But one thing working in our favour is that our army in particular has been cut back to the bone, there are only ~73,470 (as of last november) active personnel, the lowest it's been since the 2nd world war

            ideally you’ll be trying to kill it from above it in town or a city.

            I was under the impression that tanks operated with infantry support, they sweep buildings then the tanks advance, then rinse and repeat, or is that just us and the French?