Guerrilla Warfare: How and Why it Can Be Defeated

Many people, even across Associated Content, argue that to attempt to defeat a guerrilla army is a practice in futility. The guerrillas, who on their native soil are able to blend with the local populace, have a leg up over the invader, they say, and therefore are in a position of invulnerability. In time, the guerrillas will only grow stronger while the occupying force will only grow weaker - and that is when they will pounce.

This, however, is decidedly false for a number of reasons. Not the least of which being that not all guerrilla wars are waged against occupying forces - a strong majority of them are battles against the established government, for good or ill. The Cuban Communist Revolution, for example, was not against invaders or occupiers, but against the local and long established government of the nation. The Greek Civil War saw a capitalist Greek army fighting comrades in guerrilla theaters.

Furthermore, as history has taught us, no tactic is infallible - no tactic is unbeatable. In fact, history is filled with guerrilla forces that have been utterly decimated.

So why then are they so rarely spoken of? Why are these so rarely cited?

At its barest, one could argue that the old (if not misapplied) adage of "the victor writes the history books" applies, and this is one of the few situations where it does. A successful force that defeats a guerrilla army doesn't feel it necessary to highlight that they'd battled rebels for a prolonged period of time, it is politically unsound to create legends out of these figures you have just defeated; it is not wise to show that rebellion is an option.

Furthermore, there are very few decisive battles that effectively amount to the end of an insurgency. Very rarely is there a single, dramatic victory where both sides battle one another and the guerrilla prisoners can be trumpeted through the streets. When an insurgency or guerrilla force is defeated, it is a slow process where the fighters decide that the battle is not worth the risk or the rewards and slowly abandon the idea. A perfect modern example of this is the 1920s Revolutionary Brigade in Iraq, who recently announced their unwillingness to fight Coalition forces further, and instead opt to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq (now known as the Islamic State of Iraq).

But fundamentally to defeat a guerrilla army is no different from any other armed force - it's a matter of assessing the needs of the opponent and denying them those needs. Like any other force on Earth, the guerrillas require sanctuary to sleep and organize (albeit fleetingly), they require food, ammunition, clothing, communication, and intelligence. Unlike other forces though, they also require the support of the people, secrecy - and not just in their movements, but in every aspect of their society - and the ability to occupy territory they've since taken.

Recognized authority on guerrilla warfare, Captain Dale Dye, has remarked when I inquired of him if a guerrilla war can fundamentally work as a primary tactic that it must act as a supplement to a greater strategy. A perfect example is the Minute Men of the American Revolution - the war was not won by the guerrillas, the war could only be won because the guerrillas assisted in weakening the British regular force to the point that the Continental Army could sufficiently match them in the battlefield.

It goes without saying that there are many points in which the American will was ready to shatter during the Revolution - many argue that it was only French support that allowed the United States to pull through. If one were to take that argument, it should be noted then that guerrilla warfare as was seen in the Revolution should be considered defeatable.

There are many ways to defeat guerrillas - however it requires a total commitment by the conventional force. One cannot fight against guerrillas while attempting to manipulate the rules of engagement to limit operations against them.

When the Greek army realized that it would be unable to defeat the guerrillas without causing massive civilian casualties, they issued an eviction notice of the area the guerrillas occupied - and summarily starved and burned out the remaining forces there.

History has shown - from Rome to today - that guerrillas are able to be defeated.

Just not with modern rules of engagement.