Hi Sig; Re: "The Iraqis are not buying pistols to fight soldiers armed with automatic weapons If they do, they are much dumber than we give them credit for and will be easy pickings IMO they are buying pistols and rifles so their neighbors cant steal all their property when we turn out the lights."
I agree with you, for the most part. But the fact is that our problem will not be with the average Iraqi defending his own property. In any occupied nation, it is only a very small percentage that causes all the trouble. (Which is why killing 5% of the population of a country tends to subdue it so well -- those inclined to fight tend to be in the casualty lists.) But what is important in Iraq is that that small percentage has lots of weapons available to them.
As far as people armed with pistols getting involved in fire fights with soldiers armed with automatic weapons, that comment misses the point of guerilla warfare. Guerillas use pistols as an assassination tool, not as a military arm. Soldiers walking in the street will be shot in the face by people who disappear with the running crowds. Uninvolved civilians will be too frightened to say where the perpetrators went or who they are.
Similarly, hunting rifles are not good weapons to take to an automatic weapons fight. But they're perfectly suited for killing soldiers at a distance.
The objective of guerilla warriors in this situation is not to force the foreigners to either leave the country, or alternatively, to trample on the natural rights of the local population, and thereby further increase the anger and thus support for the guerillas.
While it is definitely possible to control a population with fear (as has been fairly common in warfare through the centuries), the US is not the country to do this as we are not horrible enough. Instead, because of our consciences, we will be forced to evacuate.
I should point out that in most historical cases of occupation, there is a delay of about six months between the beginning of an occupation and the rise of the resistance to it.
-- Carl |
