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[–]TheJamesRocket 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

The implications for this are huge politically as well, as the power of insurgents and citizen militias are increasingly worthless before the power of artillery and airpower.

If there was a real civil war in the United States, then the military would have to contend with the sabotage of the aging infrastructure they depend on to operate. That would be their biggest problem, not directly fighting the insurgents themselves. Holding down terrain and occupying a hostile population takes alot of troops.

[–]casparvoneverecBig tiddy respecter[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

This is a good point but the thing is that people largely live in villages and towns as you can't just find that much food to sustain tens of thousands of people in the woods.

Those villages and towns can be easily leveled.

[–]TheJamesRocket 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Those villages and towns can be easily leveled.

And that only turns the populace against the military, leading them to support the insurgents. This is the main problem with COIN operations. For every village you destroy, you create more insurgents and/or allies of the insurgency. It is called the 'accidental guerilla syndrome.'

[–]casparvoneverecBig tiddy respecter[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The state can always kidnap and kill the families of insurgents. US sucked at COIN because it lacked the ruthlessness and savagery necessary. The people needed to fear America more than the Taliban. Any village that assisted them should've been wiped off the map. Tribes and clans from which the Taliban hailed should've been bombed to extinction. Their madrasahs in Pakistan should've been bombed and their families and friends hunted down and killed.

Any captured Taliban should've been flayed alive and left to hang in the public square.

Terror works. You just need enough of it. Ask the Mongols or Stalin.

The Soviets were far more successful and inflicted vastly greater casualties on the Taliban, held more territory, and left behind a more capable government.