Friday September 28 2007

how do you obtain popular support?

Trinquier

  • need for popular support
  • terrorism is necessary

army insurgency

  • need for popular support
  • advocates protection to accomplish this end

Gallula's structural restrictions
1. terrain
2. outside support
3. a legitimate cause

Who is this Monsieur Trinquier?

  • after the war was viewed with suspicion by the new french regieme for not supporting the free french
  • became involved in aggressive special forces campaigns
  • pioneered concept of counter gurilla

Trinquier invented the counter insurgents

  • mobilizing local populations
  • frequently they were minority populations
  • convinced the locals to put local troops in the field
  • this gave the viet mingh their own counter insurgency problem
  • personal connections were formed with these minority groups (GCMA)

personal connections

  • when France cut and ran these counter gurillas were abandoned
  • this haunted Trinquier
  • he developed a distrust for politics
  • you could not depend on the government to back up the promises you made

two choices can be made in the face of abandonment

a. its a piece of territory walk away
b. fight and die abandoned by you people

Trinquier says that terrorist are soldiers

  • terrorists are professionals
  • they don't pick targets, they carry out orders
  • they are also rifles with feet just like soldiers
  • you can torture a terrorist but you can't do that to a soldier
  • this is a trade off for not wearing a uniform
  • cartesian analysis
  • elevate reason above all else

2 strategies for winning a modern war
1. treat terrorists as soldiers
2. popular mobilization

  • forcing someone to commit murder
  • it solidifies his opposition to the state structure
  • soon prestige and money become other incentives
  • purpose and direction in life

Quote Of The Day
it is not hard to get someone to fight the seduction of a better life is irresistable

methods of people feel secure by…

protecting their identities

  • secret individual interogations
  • go to great lengths to protect identities

civil guard in Iraq

  • precursor to the Iraqi police
  • approached prominant iraqies
  • asked for a list of 100 paid positions in the secret police

rambo

  • fingers like carrots
  • Iraqi police chief
  • rounded up all the 18 years old
  • the iraqi police officers wanted to wear masks
  • this mask would prevent reprisals from their family
  • popular control not popular support

Leninist structure

  • infilitrate the population
  • civil defense organizations
  • a leader is chosen to protect his block
  • he has 2 or three captains
  • they watch over 2 or 3 houses
  • the leader is briefed on every operation
  • the bloc party system in cuba
  • lenin's - cellular structure

tangent

  • Hezbollah orchestrated a truck bomb on the marine army barracks and the french embassy
  • almost half the arab linguistic officers in the CIA were killed
  • the Washington Post ran a story about the US breaking Iranian codes

limited war

  • it depends on how bad you want to win
  • what are the costs of losing
  • > why is their the assumption that defeat means death, or worse?
  • there is no such thing
  • you do whatever you have to do
  • is dissent worthwhile in conflict
  • trinquier believed you wait until you win
  • all war requires full commitment

what if dissent means defeat?

action committee

  • establishing and maintaining support through action
  • removed dissentors and tortured them
  • assassinations and executions

dissent

  • encourages the enemy
  • demoralizes the soldiers

Kenya

  • the tactics used by the British in Kenya were identical to French efforts in Vietnam

insurgency

might be a tactic to achieve a foreign policy objective

Algeria was a department of metropolatian france

  • 1 million frenchmen lived in algeria
  • 1 million algeirans lived in france
  • a colony but they had a lot of local support
  • their aspirations were not to be independent
  • algerian aspirations were to be citizens of france

Larteguy

  • French Journalist
  • barde of the conscript french army
  • wrote a triligy of books
  • Centurions
  • praetorians
  • mercenaries

praetorians

  • vietnam

mercenaries

  • 1000 french in korea
  • exchanged for US support in vietnam

centurions

  • algeria

stengths and weaknesses

  • traditional armies
  • insurgents trinquier
  • chapter nine

critiques

  • the insurgency has been defeated
  • no adaptation
  • undermines democracy

1. why would governments admit the insurgency has been defeated

  • they have total control
  • the government can't be trusted
  • they will always error on the side of over reaction

2. non adaptation

  • mid course
  • but dissent is essential

3. undermines democracy

quebec conscription crisis

  • they threw there rifles overboard
  • they rioted violently

Question?
doesn't this presuppose that the canadian government sent the army int their to route out the taliban
What abour appeasing the US?
What about playing a larger role in Afghanistan?

moral issues

  • you don't break faith with the citizen's you send into the firing line
  • when do you torture
  • when do you kill civilians

death squad

  • the concept of popular control looks like
  • they attack insurgents
  • more importantly they attack people who support the insurgents
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