Guerilla Warfare: A Historical and Critical Study
The history of guerilla warfare transcends national boundaries. Whenone nation or people group is outnumbered or out-equipped, they often turnto guerrilla tactics in order to further the purpose of war, and eventually'even the scales' in terms of military effectiveness. Walter Laqueur'sbook looks back through time, and identifies the commonalities within Distinctions exist between traditional warfare, guerilla tactics, andterrorism, which Laqueur makes in his book. Traditional warfare can bedescribed as the armed conflict between two equally matched powers.Examples of traditional warfare include the majority of battles foughtduring WWII. Armies of many nations, equipped military hardware foughtlarge and small battles over European territory. While strategies, tacticsand maneuvers were an important aspect of the battles, the nation's forcesfaced each other directly in contests for cities, and territory. Guerilla warfare is described a non-traditional conflict in which oneparty is significantly out equipped (in manpower, military equipment, etc.) than its opponent. The guerrilla tactics focus on indirect conflict,which targets strategic military objectives in ord
Who were the leadersof the Spanish guerrillas, who defeated the brave French generals in Spain'A miller, a doctor, a shepherd and curate and some deserters. (Schmidt, 1984) Terrorist groups, while operating in methods which are similar to theguerilla organizations, do not limit their targets to military andpolitical objectives. If it targets military or security personnel then it will be considered aguerrilla attack. Guerilla tactics are often part of the larger scope of atraditional war. (Laqueur,1977) Le Miere further pointed out the extraordinary circumstances thatdrove civilians to fierce resistance and "put great, perhaps decisive,emphasis on psychological factors" in this kind of warfare. The traditional Britishred coat army, which fought in organized lines, sought to win battles bytheir sheer numbers. In modern war time, with the advent of the Navy Seals, theBritish SAS, and other teams whose operations are based in guerillatactics, the effectiveness of this type of warfare has been validated. However, because the colonists knew the countryside, they were able to move quickly in small bands to attack strategictargets, which disorganized the British military hierarchy, and slowlytilted the sway of the war in favor of the colonist army. Terrorists place no limits on means employed and frequently resort towidespread assassination, the waging of 'general terror' upon theindigenous civilian population. " Boththese types of tactics are considered "unconventional warfare. Harkabi, in his book On GuerillaWarfare describes "guerrilla war" as a prolonged war of attrition, withprogressively increasing violence, blurred limits, a fluid line of contact,emphasizing the human factor. In the course of the war, guerrillacombatants become regular military forces until victory is attained and oneparty is defeated. " Laqueur's book continues as he evaluates guerilla warfare tacticsthrough history. Terrorist organizations will target civilians ifthey feel that a political or psychological advantage can be gained.
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