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
page revision: 2, last edited: 26 Oct 2007 00:34