The Impact of Insurgency on American Interests, Foreign and

Abroad

Michael Piscetelli

Table of Contents

• Definition of Insurgency • Historical Examples of Insurgency • Lessons to be Learned from the

Various Insurgencies • Current examples of Insurgency • Threats posed by Insurgency • Plan to combat current and future • Conclusion

The Importance of Understanding

• In order to discuss and debate the impact of something there first needs to be a proper understanding of it and what it represents.

• I am going to start this project by naming and defining several key terms.

Definition of Insurgency

• According to Merriam Webster, the definition of insurgency is as follows:

• A condition of revolt against a government that is less than an organized revolution and that is not recognized as belligerency

• This is a term that we hear a lot being used in the media but not too many people actually know what it means.

Definition of Counterinsurgency

• According to Merriam Webster the definition of Counterinsurgency is as follows:

• Organized military activity designed to combat insurgency

• This term is important because it is the system that the United States Military employs to combat insurgency

• However, many different plans exist to combat insurgency

The Importance of these terms

• It is important for one to understand the definitions of both terms to provide a greater understanding of the project as a whole

• The take away from these two terms is that Insurgency is a far less organized force attacking a more organized force

• Counterinsurgency is a more organized force attacking a far less organized force

Historical Examples of Insurgency

• Roman Invasion of Britain • Malaysia • Philippines • Vietnam • Along with these examples from

history there are many other appropriate examples

• There are also many different historical texts on insurgency

New Style of Fighting?

• Is this a new style of warfare? • It might seem like a yes , but the answer

is a resounding no • The news might make it seem the case,

but there are many examples of insurgent style combat as far back as 2,000 years ago

• You just need to read between the lines and you can see examples in the most unlikely of places

Examples From Historical Texts

• One example from the most unlikely source of early insurgent based religious combat is the King James Bible

• In the King James Bible, there are many examples of the early Hasidic peoples fighting wars in a style similar to that fought today in the Middle East

• Reference- the story of Abraham

Roman Britain

• The Roman Invasion of Britain was a slow and steady process that began in 43 AD

• Before that, Rome invaded Britain twice, once in 55 BC then again in 54 BC

• The invasion began under Emperor Claudius and slowly developed under other Emperors

• Before the Invasion, Britain enjoyed a certain amount of freedom and prosperity

• A percentage of their economy was based on trade with the Roman Empire and various colonies

Roman Britain

• Then, the balance of trade slowly began to shift away from the Britons and more toward the Romans

• This shift in the balance of power is what gave the Romans the signal that it was time to invade

• The invasion spanned a number of years and emperors’ reigns

• As the years went on, it seemed that the Romans were ever more and more successful

Roman Britain

• When the Romans moved into Scotland, the problems started

• The Northern parts of the British Isles were inhabited by the Scottish, Pictish, and Irish colonists.

• Unlike the rest of the British Isles they chose not to fight the Romans on conventional footing

• This by far was one of their best choices, because the Romans were the first true professional Army and conventional fighting was their expertise

Roman Britain

• The various peoples fought the Romans any and every way they could

• They would attack Roman patrols • They would target officers, i.e. they would

capture them and take them back to their respective camps and do awful things to them

• Some of these things might include being burnt alive, sacrificed, or being tortured to death

Roman Britain

• This was an issue because the Roman Empire as a whole was unwilling to take this issue seriously

• This led to the damaging of the morale of their fighting forces

• This new style of fighting led to the Roman Army being stalemated for over a decade

• This was all because the indigenous peoples intended to fight differently than the Romans expected

Advantages to Pictish fighting

• They didn’t fight the way that the Romans expected

• They targeted the Officer corps and the NCO corps in order to destroy the morale of the Army

• The main style of attack that they preferred was nighttime ambushes with the intent to capture of Roman soldiers alive

• They fought in a way that used the terrain to their advantage better than their enemies did

Map of Roman Advance

Antonius Pius’s Wall was built 142 ADHadrian's Wall was built 112 AD

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Malaya

• The Malaysian insurgency was known by many names, but one thing is sure- it carries the same earmarks of insurgency that the American forces are facing in modern day Iraq and Afghanistan

• This particular insurgency is extremely important because it is an example of one of three successful insurgencies throughout history

• The conflict was fought between the British Security Forces and Communist Forces in the area

• The Communist Forces were known as the Malayan People’s Anti – British Army

• The conflict took place between 1948 - 1960

Malaya • Another important factor that makes this

particular insurgency important: it shows that with a well thought out strategy, an insurgency can be beaten

• However, there are aspects of this plan that are not feasible to implement today

• The Malayan communist party called from an armed revolt against the government because they believed that the independence process was manipulated by the British

• The initial phase of the Malayan Insurgency was marked with lots of violence aimed at the British Security forces

Malaya

• The Malaysian communist party was successful in inflicting huge amounts of causalities on the British Security Forces, but they were unable to sustain their initial momentum

• They were unable to effectively fight the counter attack launched from the British Security Forces, nor were they able to establish effective bases from which they could expand

• This stalled the momentum of their initial assault; because of that they were forced to move deeper into the jungles to base their operations safely

Malaya

• With the insurgents withdrawing deeper into the Jungle, the second phase of the fight began; it lasted from 1949 to 1951

• During this time the Communist Force relied heavily on terrorist style attacks

• During 1951 there were over 6,000 terrorist style attacks launched at British Security Forces and Civilians

Malaya

• However, as time went on, the insurgents began to break their forces up into even smaller platoons to avoid detection

• As a direct result, the police losses fell from 100% to 20%

• However, during this time the British leadership was changing as well, which brought about the “Briggs Plan” for dealing with insurgency

BRIGGS PLAN

NEW VILLAGES

·AIM : deprive the commies of food, money, medicine , men & info·commies got supplies from Chinese villagers & squatters living near jungle ·people were intimidated by commies & MinYuen -> murdered traitors & informers·DIFFICULT to protect villagers & squatters – isolated & scattered·New Villages – resettlement of Chinese squatters·surrounded by barbed wire fences – protected by soldiers ·water , electricity , schools, medical services , social services provided·Propaganda & education teams sent to villages – to gain their support of Brit govt·isolated the villagers from the commie threat ·cut off the supply chain to commies

PROTECTION OF PEOPLE

·people felt protected through new villages & extra military forces·knew it was more difficult for the commies to get to them ·people were willing to give info on the commie activities & hideouts·Security forces were able to attack hideouts & capture commies

OPERATION STARVATION

·Scheme that imposed controls on the purchase, sale, transport & storage of food·commies got supply of food from villagers ·people were now given ration cards·only allowed to purchase restricted amounts of food according to number of family members·ensure strict control on purchase , sale & transport of food ·people could not buy food supply for commies·govt sprayed weed killer over jungles to destroy food commies were growing in secret·it was difficult for the commies to get food supplies

COORDINATION

·better coordination among army, police, military & civil forces·introduced War Executive Committees at federal & state & district levels·JOB : 1. supervise the different security groups in the country

.plan emergency work together : food control , police, info & military operations

·coordination of all the security forces made attacks on the commies consistent & organized – more effective

Malaya

• The final phase was based around the British Offensive

• During this phase, the emergency was mostly over; it was a mop up operation for the most part

• The British relied heavily on air power for various aspects of their counter offensive operation e.g. offensive air support, transportation, reconnaissance, crop spraying, and support of psychological operations

Malaya

• They would use the air strikes as a way of flushing out the insurgents and prepping the area for the incoming ground attacks

• The air attacks would rarely kill insurgents outright; they were meant to harass and flush them out

• The air support was also used to provide cover for convoys en route between places

• Regardless of the air strikes, there still was the need for ground troops to come in and clear the areas

Malaya

• There was also a heavy reliance on psychological warfare

• The British used the constant dropping of leaflets that detailed the key deaths of communists and other demoralizing material

• They also used aerial and loud speakers to send messages to the insurgents

Malaya

• In terms of taking the war to the enemy through the use of air power and resources, it was considered a success both in physical and psychological terms

• They used it as a force multiplier and to win the hearts and minds of the insurgents

Malaya

• The British also set up more centralized coordination for intelligence gathering under a single person

• Between the intelligence gathering and the resettlements, the British Army had essentially won the major battles and had only to wrap up

Philippines

• The struggle between various communist factions and the Filipino government has been going on as far back as 1948

• It initially began with small scale skirmishes

• The real full scale fighting began in the 1960’s

• During this time many different group emerged to challenge the establishment

Philippines

• In 1948 several different rebel groups started the Hukbalahap Rebellion

• This rebellion was targeted at the government and their supporters

• During World War II, the Hukbalahap movement had support from the Japanese Occupation

• However, after the war, feelings for the movement began to wane

Philippines

• Huks carried out a campaign of raids, holdups, robbery, ambushes, murders, rapes, and massacres of small villages

• The Federal Government found this unacceptable and deployed an unorthodox counterinsurgency strategy

• It might have been unorthodox, but it reduced the random violence on the civilian populace

Philippines

• The government deployed special hunter-killer counter insurgent units to deal with the rebels

• During this time the insurgents were being hunted by the government forces

• Between the government ground forces, the combat intelligence gathering and psychological warfare, the government was able to crush the rebellion

Map of Philippines

Vietnam

• A Cold War conflict that began in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in November of 1955

• The war was primarily fought between the North Vietnamese and their communist allies and the South Vietnamese and the United States

• However, for the purposes of this project I an going to focus on the Viet Cong

Vietnam

• The United States Government initially viewed this as a way to stop a communist takeover of South Vietnam in accordance with their overall strategy of containment

• In the 1950s, the United States began sending military advisors

• However, by 1968 they began to mobilize and deploy full combat brigades to the region

• U.S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973 as a result of the Case–Church Amendment passed by the U.S. Congress

Vietnam

• The Vietcong, or the National Liberation Front (NLF), was both a political and a military guerilla unit

• They fought against the South Vietnamese and their American allies

• In the 1960s the NLF called for an overthrow of the South Vietnamese puppet government

Vietnam

• The Vietcong was an irregular military force that was centered in South Vietnam and toward the Cambodian border

• In December of 1965, the North Vietnamese ordered the Vietcong to avoid fighting the Americans in pitched battles unless they had a distinct numbers advantage over the Americans

• This was the North Vietnamese counter to the build up and surge of American forces

• Also, during this time, the Vietnamese focused on building safe bases for their troops in the south

Vietnam

• They created massive underground tunnel complexes to provide safe havens for their troops

• Along with that, they used various low level technologies to combat the overwhelming American firepower

• They worked with booby traps and various other low technology solutions to beat the Americans

Vietnam

• Other issues that arose from this conflict were that intelligence gathering and collection needs to of greater importance

• It is not always important to out fight your enemy if you can out think them.

• The Vietcong defeated us in the realm of intel gathering

Lessons Learned

• The lesson to be learned from this particular example is to be wary of the examples of “hearts and minds”

• If you don’t take the people’s hearts and minds seriously, the people will lose faith in their government, so the government needs to provide for its people

• If the people begin to lose faith in their government, they will rebel and fight their government; that is why there were so many different challenging groups during this 20 year span

Lessons Learned

• Another lesson that needs to be taken from this conflict is that the way the United States currently handles its intelligence has its shortcomings

• If you can out think your enemy, you do not need to out fight them

• Strength is something that can be built up; intelligence cannot be taught

Lessons Learned

• The United States military learned a variety of lessons from the jungles of Vietnam

• One of the major lessons was that the use of air power meant nothing during this war

• The United States virtually destroyed the Vietnamese infrastructure and the capitals of major population centers

• This did nothing more than strengthen the resolve of the North Vietnamese fighters.

Lessons Learn Cont.

• This showed that the American strategy of “Bombing them Back to the Stone Age”

• The United States underestimated the strength and resolve of their North Vietnamese enemies and South Vietnamese counterparts

• The United States went in the war thinking that they were fighting the same type of war that they fought in Korea

Lessons Learned Cont.

• Many of the United States diplomats never found the breaking point of the North Vietnamese; it was concluded that the only way to bring them to the table would be with the threat of total destruction.

• However, during that war that option was completely off the table

• Another lesson learned was that dead space is an extremely important consideration

Lessons Learned Cont.

• Another factor that wasn’t taken into account was the effect the North Vietnamese forces were having on our troops

• The designed their attacks to have maximum physiological effects on the American forces

• They based their success on the amount of American coffins that were sent home

• Essentially, the North Vietnamese fought a war of attrition and the Americans were unwilling to pay the price

Lessons Learned Cont.

• What was meant by the Americans were unwilling to pay the price was that unlike World War II, there was no clear cut objective

• When we were fighting in World War II, our aim was to stop the Nazis from taking over the world, but in Vietnam it was far more ambiguous

• Because the mission was so convoluted, the American people as a whole were unwilling to shoulder the burden in the cost of human life and national treasure

Modern Insurgency

• There are many different modern examples of Insurgency that pose a threat to United States interests

• Some of these places include Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraqi, and Pakistan

• For the purposes of this project I am going to focus on Iraq

Iraq

• The Iraq war: there are a variety of reasons given for the start of the war, but that is of little consequence to the project as a whole

• For this part of the project, I will focus on the sectarian conflict that engulfed the country in the spring of 2004

• Along with that, I will focus on the United States and their loss of direction during the initial invasion and directly after the capture of former President Saddam Hussein

• Along with that, I will take a look at the new uses of weapons by the insurgents and their effects on us and coalition forces

Iraq

• It is important for an military unit to have direction and a mission

• Within the military it is called the commander’s intent

• The commander in chief of the United States military is the President of the United States

• The president during the initnal inviasion was George W. Bush

Iraq

• President Bush is quoted as saying that our mission was to “capture Sadam and bring him to justice.”

• However, after he was captured, many soldiers felt that the mission was complete and that they should go home

The Capture

Iraq

• That was not going to be the actuality of the issue

• It seemed that the United States Military was going to stay for the near future.

• This presented an issue because it was not just regular soldiers that didn’t know their mission

• That presented a problem because the officers didn’t know what was happening- how were the regular soldiers to know what to do

Iraq

• Shortly after the capture and execution of former president Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi insurgency was on the rise

• It began during 2003 during the initial invasion before the formation of the new government

• Between 2004 and May of 2007 the insurgents specifically attacked the collation forces

• From 2007 the insurgents began attacking the security forces

Iraq

• The acts were similar to other types of guerrilla warfare that have been seen throughout history

• They use traditional ambushes and massed attacks along with things such as car bombs, kidnappings, hostage-taking, and shootings

• These attacks were not just an attempt to kill soldiers; they were trying to break the will of the American people

Iraq & I.E.D.’s

• This war as brought to light a new and terrifying weapon: the I.E.D.

• An I.E.D. is a roadside bomb that that is homemade and deployed in ways other than conventional military action

• It can be made from a variety of things that can be as simple as an artillery round with a detonating mechanism

Iraq & I.E.D’s

• The I.E.D.’s that were deployed in Iraqi were responsible for more than 60% of all coalition deaths in Iraqi.

• There are many common places that I.E.D’s are found, such as the side of the road, hidden in animal carcasses and trash.

Iraq & I.E.D’s

•  Typically, they explode underneath or to the side of the vehicle to cause the maximum amount of damage; however, as vehicle armor was improved on military vehicles, insurgents began placing I.E.D.’s in elevated positions such as on road signs, utility poles, or trees, in order to hit less protected areas

Iraq & I.E.D’s

Iraq & I.E.D’s

• This weapon has a dual effect: it is meant to not only kill soldiers but also to break their morale

• This is the same strategy that the Vietcong chose during the Vietnam War: beat them at home rather than beating them on the battlefield

Threats Posed By Insurgency

• Insurgency poses many different threats to the United State interests, foreign and domestic

• Insurgency poses a threat to foreign interests because it eventually leads to the destabilization of the region

• It poses much the same threat to domestic interests, but within the United States

Threats Posed By Insurgency

• The main factor to consider when going over the threat to United States military interest abroad: the destabilization of regions that are of vital interest to US interests

• The next factor to consider: if the destabilization in certain regions occurs and they posess NBC materials, they could get into the hand of the insurgents such as in Afghanistan after the Soviet Invasion and during the Yemen conflicts ih the 1990s

Threats Posed By Insurgency

• They provide a potential safe haven for insurgents to launch future attacks against the United States on American soil

• It is important to understand that the United States Forces, prior to our current wars, were trained to fight traditional full scale conflicts

Threats Posed By Insurgency

• The threats that are posed to domestic America are far greater than that aboard

• The prospect of another attack on American soil is a daunting one

• This image is what would happen if a small scale dirty bomb was detonated and how far it would travel

Threats Posed By Insurgency

• If a dirty bomb was detonated within a major U.S. city, initial costs are estimated as follows:

• The initial blast would cause damage within 4 sq km initially and the radiation cloud can travel up to 150 miles away depending upon the prevailing wind

• The initial rush on medical facilities is estimated to cost around 23 billion dollars and then an additional 8.7 billion for after effects and clean up

Threats Posed By Insurgency

• Cancer would be another aftereffect of the dirty bomb

• People around the initial base site would began to get cancer

• People within 200 to 500 meters of the initial blast site would have a 1 in 7 chance of cancer

Plan to Deal with Current and Future Insurgencies