First I am not a colonel.I was in Vietnam during the war(North Vietnam)It is the fierce commitment of the people that won the war.I saw soldiers as young as 15.The other notable feature is the American Bombing.They were so accurate that the Vietnamese workers used to stay away 100 feet from the marshaling yard and resume work after bombing.In the South the American Army had secret understanding with the Viet Cong (They do not operate during certain times) ostensibly to save American lies.Another factor many people refuse to accept is the sheer ruthlessness of the LTTE,Naxals,Viet Cong or the ISIS.They have no rules but the forces fighting them are doing it with their hands tied.However I always felt that the Viet Nam war was a freedom struggle and the Americans had no business there in the first place.
Shri Athalye is very correct in saying that the Naxals can not win against the Indian army. But correct only up to the extent the assumption that naxals do not have a trained army. The truth can be different. In the Khalistan case, we saw that the IPS officers like Man joined Khalistan force leaving IPS. So the problem of trained man power is already over. As for the finance, it can be provided by any country even friendly to India. I believe that the term guerilla is just for names sake. It indicates only that it is not a formal state power. It has nothing to do with military or administrative capabilities. They are at par with the state. When we say that roman empire was defeated by agrarian insurgents, it probably means the same. A request to Shri Athlye to shed some light on this aspect also.
Mr. Athale is right almost about everything, except Syria. How can a person like Assad survive when he has killed so many of his own citizens using barrel bombs and chemicals. He will meet the fate of earlier dictators sooner or later, with or without Syrian rebels being support by any country.
Re: Almost correct except one
by on Apr 30, 2015 09:34 AM
Assad is a good man fighting against extremism and he is protecting his countrymen to go to medieval ages like what is happening in iraq, saudi, yemen.
