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The Viet Cong used unconventional tactics successfully to turn the civilian populace of South Vietnam against the U.S.-backed government in Saigon; the Afghani resistance accomplished the same goal in their ten-year struggle to drive vastly superior Soviet troops out of Afghanistan. Todays terrorists are using with far greater sophistication the same tactics that ensnared the U.S. in Vietnam, the Soviets in Afghanistan, and which have engulfed large segments of Latin America in ongoing violence.
Terrorists who engage in unconventional warfare blend into civilian populations, making it impossible to engage them without widespread, indiscriminate destruction of civilian populations. Compact explosives, portable missile launchers, atomic weapons the size of a suitcase, biological weapons, and massive international trade now mean that even a small number of indistinguishable individuals can cause large-scale destruction. "Defeat" of such an opponent is an out-dated concept.
Over confidence in the effectiveness of superior conventional force makes it relatively easy for states to be enticed into costly mobilization. If heavy damage is inflicted on civilian populations, the civilian support base for the unconventional group will be exponentially expanded.
3. Unconventional strategies rely on the fact that military combat usually unites civilian
populations who are casualties. r Terrorists face a difficult problem: the communities they seek to mobilize are diverse. These groups are almost always on the fringes of their society, in the same way that extremist hate-groups are on the fringe of American society. Even when many agree with the goals of terrorists, few would normally support military combat against a more powerful nation.
r
Terrorists benefit from the tendency of outsiders to overlook these distinctions and to
treat whole groups as though they were the part of the terrorists group.
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Thus, those relying on unconventional warfare depend on the response of their powerful victims to create something that they cannot alone create: a broad seedbed of sympathizers among people previously apathetic or even hostile to their cause.
4. The challenge in dealing with unconventional warfare: to limit their capacity to do grave harm
without doing large scale, grave harm in response and to address the concerns in larger populations which those using the unconventional warfare try to exploit. Key elements: r Prudent defensive measures at home
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Military restraint abroad Engagement and consultation with the domestic populations abroad to recognize, strengthen, and collaborate with the majority elements in those populations which oppose violence. An active effort to understand and address the desperation of those populations which terrorists seek to exploit - If we are seen as respectful of and concerned for their needs, they will not become recruits for terrorists.
Ron Kraybill, PhD Associate Professor of Conflict Studies Email: kraybilr@emu.edu Reviewed and approved by Conflict Transformation Program - October 2001 Conflict Transformation Program 1200 Park Road Harrisonburg, VA 22802 Telephone: (540)432-4490 Email: beyondsept11@emu.edu
Beyond September 11