FormerHorseGuard
Sr. Member
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I know many of you do not agree with a lot of things he says but everything needs to be looked at with an open mind and i found this interesting
Toronto Sun website 09 march 07
Fri, March 9, 2007
Guerrillas' lessons lost
By PETER WORTHINGTON
In the category of "better late than never," the Canadian army is publishing a 250-page manual to instruct troops on how to fight guerrilla and counter-insurgency operations.
According to the National Post, this is the first time an effort has been made to familiarize soldiers with this form of warfare presently being fought in Afghanistan.
The fact such a manual is only now being published in this first decade of the 21st Century, persuasively supports Gen. Rick Hillier's controversial view that for our military, the 1990s was a "decade of darkness." Hillier's bluntness has the Liberals in a tizzy, claiming he's parroting the Tory government's line.
What nonsense! As one who has paid some attention to the goings-on of our military, I'd argue that Hillier's "decade of darkness" is overly generous: Our military has been in a progressively darkening twilight zone since Pierre Trudeau became PM in 1968.
Since then, beginning with Vietnam, unconventional or guerrilla-style warfare has been on the rise -- yet our military steadfastly refused to adjust or contemplate any sort of fighting, much less guerrilla war against barefoot armies. Not our soldiers fault, but "peacekeeping" policies imposed by government.
All that has since changed.
We had battle-trained (from Korea) soldiers on the International Control Commission (ICC) checking violations during the Vietnam war -- but with no eye to the Canadian military learning this old/new warfare.
In fact, the powers that rule and guide our military have adamantly resisted learning anything about, say, the barefoot armies of Africa that have waged successful war against mechanized, conventional armies of the European mode.
A prime example that could have taught military observers plenty, was the civil war in Angola when Jonas Savimbi's UNITA fought the Soviet/Cuba-backed MPLA regime to a standstill. By the time Savimbi was abandoned by the West, UNITA controlled most of Angola except for major cities.
I visited Savimbi's troops three times, each time urging in print that our military send observers to learn this style of warfare, where Soviet tanks were taken out by disciplined tribesmen with decent weaponry.
At Cazumbo, in the interior, I watched barefoot soldiers lighting small fires to attract Soviet/Cuban air strikes, so they could use Stinger missiles and small arms to shoot them down. When the U.S. supplied Savimbi with Stinger missiles, conventional U.S. military thinking was Stingers were too complex for wide use. To their surprise, UNITA fighters quickly adapted, shooting down half a dozen Cuban planes while testing the weapons.
No Canadian army officer ever went near Angola or UNITA.
It its 28-year war against Ethiopian dominance, Eritrean fighters with no foreign help, eventually routed the most modern and mechanized army in black Africa. Again, no Canadian military observers to study this warfare, where 30% of Eritrea's fighters were women, and tanks captured on the battlefield were turned around and used against the Ethiopians.
The world ignored Eritrea's war for independence. Even the International Red Cross refused to investigate prisoner and refugee camps, for fear of displeasing Ethiopia's Marxist regime.
By sending observers, the Canadian military could have learned much about the use of women in fighting roles, and about unconventional warfare. Canadian soldiers eventually went to Eritrea after the 1998 border war, but as peacekeepers -- useless for learning much.
The best way to learn guerrilla war and counter-insurgency is to experience it -- as our troops in Afghanistan are effectively doing.
Now that ours is once again a "fighting" military, a new manual may help, but it's a pity so much was lost during the "decades of darkness" that preceded the present.
• Have a letter for the editor? E-mail it to editor@tor.sunpub.com
Toronto Sun website 09 march 07
Fri, March 9, 2007
Guerrillas' lessons lost
By PETER WORTHINGTON
In the category of "better late than never," the Canadian army is publishing a 250-page manual to instruct troops on how to fight guerrilla and counter-insurgency operations.
According to the National Post, this is the first time an effort has been made to familiarize soldiers with this form of warfare presently being fought in Afghanistan.
The fact such a manual is only now being published in this first decade of the 21st Century, persuasively supports Gen. Rick Hillier's controversial view that for our military, the 1990s was a "decade of darkness." Hillier's bluntness has the Liberals in a tizzy, claiming he's parroting the Tory government's line.
What nonsense! As one who has paid some attention to the goings-on of our military, I'd argue that Hillier's "decade of darkness" is overly generous: Our military has been in a progressively darkening twilight zone since Pierre Trudeau became PM in 1968.
Since then, beginning with Vietnam, unconventional or guerrilla-style warfare has been on the rise -- yet our military steadfastly refused to adjust or contemplate any sort of fighting, much less guerrilla war against barefoot armies. Not our soldiers fault, but "peacekeeping" policies imposed by government.
All that has since changed.
We had battle-trained (from Korea) soldiers on the International Control Commission (ICC) checking violations during the Vietnam war -- but with no eye to the Canadian military learning this old/new warfare.
In fact, the powers that rule and guide our military have adamantly resisted learning anything about, say, the barefoot armies of Africa that have waged successful war against mechanized, conventional armies of the European mode.
A prime example that could have taught military observers plenty, was the civil war in Angola when Jonas Savimbi's UNITA fought the Soviet/Cuba-backed MPLA regime to a standstill. By the time Savimbi was abandoned by the West, UNITA controlled most of Angola except for major cities.
I visited Savimbi's troops three times, each time urging in print that our military send observers to learn this style of warfare, where Soviet tanks were taken out by disciplined tribesmen with decent weaponry.
At Cazumbo, in the interior, I watched barefoot soldiers lighting small fires to attract Soviet/Cuban air strikes, so they could use Stinger missiles and small arms to shoot them down. When the U.S. supplied Savimbi with Stinger missiles, conventional U.S. military thinking was Stingers were too complex for wide use. To their surprise, UNITA fighters quickly adapted, shooting down half a dozen Cuban planes while testing the weapons.
No Canadian army officer ever went near Angola or UNITA.
It its 28-year war against Ethiopian dominance, Eritrean fighters with no foreign help, eventually routed the most modern and mechanized army in black Africa. Again, no Canadian military observers to study this warfare, where 30% of Eritrea's fighters were women, and tanks captured on the battlefield were turned around and used against the Ethiopians.
The world ignored Eritrea's war for independence. Even the International Red Cross refused to investigate prisoner and refugee camps, for fear of displeasing Ethiopia's Marxist regime.
By sending observers, the Canadian military could have learned much about the use of women in fighting roles, and about unconventional warfare. Canadian soldiers eventually went to Eritrea after the 1998 border war, but as peacekeepers -- useless for learning much.
The best way to learn guerrilla war and counter-insurgency is to experience it -- as our troops in Afghanistan are effectively doing.
Now that ours is once again a "fighting" military, a new manual may help, but it's a pity so much was lost during the "decades of darkness" that preceded the present.
• Have a letter for the editor? E-mail it to editor@tor.sunpub.com
