The once undefetable Tamil Rebels have finally met their match. The article is good and focus on the politically correct strategies of counterinsurgency warfare but glazed past the most important aspect of the counterinsurgency fight and that is fighting. The government took a hard line approach to dealing with the insurgents, something that many counterinsurgency experts feel is the wrong way to go about things but the results don’t lie. However many counterinsurgency experts will view this as a successfull way to put down an insurgency and nothing could be further from the truth. The Tamil Rebels were there own best enemy and managed to sabotage their own efforts through greed and corruption. An excellent book on the subject is Guerillas Journeys in the Insurgent World by Jon Lee Anderson which I highly suggest for anyone interested in a more realistic perspective of the fighting before these news reports broke.

from timesonline.co.uk
Guerrilla tactics – how the Tamil Tigers were beaten in an ‘unwinnable’ war

Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent
It was supposed to be the unwinnable war. For almost three decades, Sri Lanka was held up as an example of how a small democratic state with a conventional army could never defeat a well-funded and disciplined guerrilla organisation.

It has proved that to be untrue. But how Sri Lanka won its victory — and whether it should be condoned or copied — is the subject of an international debate that touches on the War on Terror, the UN and the new geopolitical world order.

Opinion is divided about whether Sri Lanka will win the peace by offering its 2.4 million ethnic Tamils an acceptable devolution package.

Whichever side one takes though, Sri Lanka offers valuable lessons for any country facing an insurgency — such as Pakistan and Afghanistan.

From a military perspective the campaign of the past two years has been such a success that it is being studied by counter-insurgency specialists around the world.

Key to that was the acquisition of fighter jets and radar from China and aerial surveillance drones from Israel that allowed the air force to target the Tigers accurately.

The army used guerrilla tactics — moving in small groups through the jungle rather than on main roads — while the Tigers fought a conventional campaign to defend their territory.

Military intelligence split the Tigers by persuading Colonel Karuna, their second in command, to defect in 2004, allowing the army to drive the rebels out of eastern Sri Lanka in 2007. The navy played a crucial role by attacking the Tigers’ supply ships, with help from India and the US.

In the international arena Sri Lanka outmanoeuvred the Tamil Tigers by taking advantage of counter-terrorism legislation introduced after the attacks on the US on September 11, 2001.

It lobbied hard to have the Tigers banned as terrorists in the US, EU, Canada and Australia, forcing those countries to crack down on their financing and arms procurement.

More recently it has cultivated ties with China, Iran and other non-Western powers to counterbalance Western criticism of its conduct of the war.

It also secured tacit approval for its campaign from the ruling Congress party in India, whose leader Sonia Gandhi was keen to avenge the assassination of her husband, Rajiv, by the Tigers in 1991.

The result has been paralysis of the UN system, with Western governments unable to put Sri Lanka on the formal agenda of the Security Council.

Britain, the EU and the UN rights chief have called for war crimes investigations and Washington is stalling an application by Sri Lanka for a $1.9 billion (£1.2 billion) emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund.

War crimes will be hard to prove and the IMF will probably grant the loan because withholding funds would be counter-productive now that the war is over.

It is on the domestic political front, however, that Sri Lanka’s strategy has been most questionable. Mahinda Rajapaksa promised to take a hard line against the Tigers and won the presidential election in 2005 in large part because Velupillai Prabakharan, their leader, forced northeastern Tamils to boycott the poll.

Since then the President has joined forces with a Sinhalese nationalist party to stir patriotic fervour that has stifled all political opposition by branding critics as terrorists.

The domestic media have been silenced by the Government’s failure to investigate attacks on journalists, of whom 14 have been killed since 2006.

Access to the front line has been minimal. That has guaranteed support for the war within the Sinhalese majority and a steady flow of recruits for the professional army, which has not released its casualty figures for months.

It also means that there has been no scrutiny of military tactics, which appear to have included shelling civilian areas, and no public debate about a long-term political solution.

Consequently, the army has alienated many moderate Tamils through its disregard for civilian casualties and callous treatment of the 200,000 Tamils in internment camps.

The Government must work fast to rebuild its democratic institutions and reassure those Tamils that they can benefit more from peace than war. It needs vastly to improve conditions in the camps and keep its promise to resettle 80 per cent of the inmates by the end of this year.

It also needs to present a devolution package granting enough autonomy to satisfy Tamils not just in Sri Lanka but also in the large and wealthy diaspora that funded the Tigers.

If it succeeds it may yet add weight to the idea that terrorists such as the Tigers can be beaten only by curbing civil liberties, keeping the media away and using brute force — just as Russia did in Chechnya.

If it fails, however, it will have squandered the sympathy of the democratic world — not to mention billions of pounds — and created a new generation of Tigers.

A quick run down on a few of my thoughts on why Militias are fundamentally better prepared for war than armies.

People join Militias to kill people. Members of militias have less issues actually killing people as the default role of a militia men is a infantryman, there is no “service support” or communications jobs. People who join militias get absolutely no benefits whatsoever and must train and arm themselves at their own expense. Members of militias engage in their militant activities in their spare times, most are competent in a skill other than warfare and maintain normal lives while not engaged in guerrilla activities. Because of this, a militant is usually more mentally astute than a government military regular who would other wise be homeless if it was not for the government. Modern armies offer a steady wage and benefits that attract legions of losers into their folds. Government sponsored armies are looked upon as a easy job that is relatively stable, unless war breaks out, in which case everyone that joined now wants to leave. This problem is even more evident in third world c countries who see a massive defective rate of 50% into enemy hands in prolonged campaigns.

Money can’t buy killers. Money  buys thugs, period. The common man is tough and full of valor when they have a definite numerical and technological advantage over their advesaries yet fall to pieces when they encounter strong and determined resistance over a prolonged period. Government “regulars” should only be used against government regulars.

Troops claim ’supernatural powers’ after pygmy sodomy. Seriously? Fucking Seriously!? Cant the sub-human apes of Africa do damn near anything without turning it into a collasle GOAT FUCK! Will someone please nuke that fucking piece of shit continent from orbit and be done with it. Brainless niggers, fucking people in the ass thinking it will get them special powers.

AIDS powers maybe…

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25455058-5005961,00.html

From correspondents in Kigali, Rwanda

May 09, 2009 09:30pm

GOVERNMENT troops sodomised pygmies in March in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, believing they would gain supernatural powers, a regional rights group said.

“Some soldiers from the 85th Brigade sodomised three male pygmies to gain supernatural powers and protection in Kisa village in Walikale territory,” the Human Rights League of the Great Lakes said.

“The village chief was stripped and (sodomised) in the presence of his wife, his children and daughter in-law.

“The children in turn were stripped and raped in front of their father.”

It said armed groups in the region also abused the pygmies.

Elderly citizens and children were also being raped by the armed groups and wayward FARDC soldiers in eastern DRC, it added.

The pygmies live essentially as subsistence hunter-gatherers in the forests in the DRC’s equatorial zones and have been targeted by militia groups in the past.

Among the armed groups roaming the eastern part of Congo are the Rwandan Hutu Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda rebels.

Some of its members are accused of being among the main perpetrators of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide by Hutus against the Tutsi minority.

The United Nations and global human rights organisations have accused the FDLR of engaging in mass murder, rape and pillage of locals’ property.

Some people may wonder how it is to work for a large government, such as the government or the excuse for one, that currently runs things within the United States of America and its foreign interest. In short, from a “tacti-cool operator” based level it is fucking boring.

I’ve had the unpleasant experience of being employed and sent to “over seas” locations with the mission of supporting mob rule, other wise known as democracy. It is an exercise in hypocrisy. We get stationed in these foreign cultures and support their despotic rulers who have merely changed the name of their governments but not the morals, ethics, and culture. What we end doing is supporting the exact same type of jackass we wanted to dispose except this one is willing to do the bidding of our government.

Its a all a joke, just one big fucking joke.

To make matters worse those currently employed by the Armed Services soon find themselves bored out of their minds. Simple freedoms are taken away from us and we are taught to bow to foreign rulers, their flags, and ass backwards cultures. Any negative incidents that takes place is clearly the fault of the service member for being “ignorant” and not open minded. We make great attempts not to portray ourselves as colonialist to the point that we allow third world peoples to simply walk all over us. Never mind that our own “ignorant” and non “open minded” culture is responsible for putting a man on the moon and nearly all technological achievements in the last 100 years, “we” are the problem. The Armed Services attempt to rectify this situation by providing some bullshit cultural tour so we can further be indoctrinated into the “globalization” concepts of our state department masters. Those who retain their natives American culture are deemed not a good fit for the system and regulated to technical roles as opposed to leadership positions. The leadership is comprised of just about every personality type you witnessed in high school being stuffed into a locker, but now their leaders and empowered by the state. We are led into wars that no one once to claim the responsibility of starting by weirdos, bitches, fags, and niggers.

They, those same incompetent self appointed leaders, know they are the best of the best because someone told them so, and those that don’t agree are merely ignorant peons that can never grasps the intent and concept of the mission. From the highest echelons of leaders to the lowest and dumbest enlisted all believe that they are somehow a part of an elite team despite evidence to the contrary.  The mere fact that third world illiterate farmers have been kicking our collective asses since after World War II is apparently ignored.

Ignorance and Arrogance is usually a combination package…

In short that is what working for Uncle Sam is. It make patriots into apathetic disillusioned cogs in the wheel. It turns “yes men” into leaders and visionaries and everyone else is just along for the ride. Mistakes and tragedies are combined into “after action reviews” so that lessons can be learned from collosse fuckups. The organization makes great strides to prepare for the last battle but is always caught off guard by the next one.

The role of the sniper has never been more relevant than on the role on terror. I have recently began thinking how can the average citizen benefit from sniper training? What is the ideal platform for the guerilla sniper? Recently in my ruminations I have gave this some much more additional thought and have come up with a few guidlines for the ideal sniper rifle.  Recently a book entitled The Guerilla Sniper had led some additional weight to my thinking, though I have as of yet to read it, it has got me thinking that I am not the only one thinking in this direction. Additionally this post has gotten me thinking even more and has helped me in refining some of my ideas about The Guerilla Sniper and optimal tools.

The author of the post thought a reduced range of 300m would be ideal and I agree with this along with his recommendation to go with a suppressed weapon system. I have further refined some of the parameters:

1. Capable of head shots at 300m, body shots at 600m
2. Suppressed
3. Able to be easily broken down and stored in inconspicuous containers (IE golf bags, tennis bags, tool boxes)
4. Optional: able to use commonly available ammunition and magazines.
5. .308 caliber or higher
6. Minimum of a 20″ barrel

I will recommend that at an AR platform be used due to commonality of parts and ease with which it came broken down into two parts. Possible options with this would be an AR based platform that could be broken down for transport.  The requirement of being able to make head shots at 300m is a firm one for me. Looking at the ongoing conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan most shots by snipers are the head. The reason for this is self-explanatory, most soldiers (IE occupying forces) will wear some type of body armor, a head shot negates the benefits of body armor. A good ACOG sight, trigger job, adjustable stock, and match ammunition will allow this rifle to serve as a rifleman, designated marksman, or sniper roles. At the time of this writing I believe that the Armalite AR10 Super S.A.S.S. rifle will best perform this role. This rifle was picked over the DPMS offering to the U.S. Army for dubious reasons I won’t even begin to go into here, I’ll just let it be said that it is the better of the two.

Recently with the advent of “tactical” weapon training schools and competitive pricing there has been a movement to limit this military/law enforcement training to the public. The unfounded fear is based upon the assumption that terrorist, gang members, and subversive groups will enroll in these training programs and then pose a direct threat to police forces and national security.  I’ve never heard a more unfounded utterly preposterous argument against education in my entire life. This does back my belief that governments prefer that its “citizens” or should I say subjects are stupid and uneducated. A stupid and uneducated populace needs help and the government is more than willing to lend a hand. A educated, self-sufficient populace is not conducive to government control, they do things for themselves, resent government authority and question government actions and policies.

People in government gravitate to these positions due to the attention and power it brings, it fulfills a need they apparently had never received in adequate quantities before. Once these people are in power they realize how fragile their positions are and soon set about concocting reasons that they should remain in and increase their powers. Fears (such as swine flu…), uncertainty, and doubt keep them in power, hope and change put them in power. Its a rather beautiful system wouldn’t you say? Those who point to government inadequacies and deficiencies in knowledge are quickly written off as paranoid, stupid, or just plain crazy. This is ever more prevalent in the “gun culture” of America.

Many gun owners feel absolutely no reason why a law abiding citizen should receive specialized weapons training. Educational enrichment and curiosity aren’t even mentioned as only those deemed professional enough should know the secrets of the black arts. They come off with about as much mystique and proficiency as a Kung Fu master who refuses to share his secrets to westerners circa 1950. However once the doors of knowledge were open to martial arts practitioners we begin to see knew moves, techniques, strategies and training regimes. Gone were the days of the “flying crane kick” and in came the days of MMA, K-1, UFC, and Pride. The martialist world turned into a evolving art form. However weapons training remained stagnant primarily because of paranoid governments that accused its law abiding populaces of the very same thing, yet in this information age stupidity and arrogance can only last so long. Like mold in the sun, such outdated opinions and prejudices soon melt away in the light of truth.  In much the same way that over paid security agencies such as Blackwater were phased out in favour of cheaper and much more cost effective soldiers from Africa and Eastern Europe so will their techniques and training.

I think its great that forums such as Warrior Talk exist and people are starting to wake up and take responsibility for their own safety and prepare for threats against criminal elements, subversive organizations, and start taking real proactive measures that go beyond just buying guns but actually learning how to use them.