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What is an example of a genuine, well-trained militia, and how does it fare against a government's military?

• jpttsn 9y ago
  Afghan militia has fared well both against US/NATO and Soviet militaries in the past 50 years.
  • danans 9y ago
    If you are referring to the Taliban and their precursors, they have had, and continue to have significant financial and logistical backing from nation states.
    • jpttsn 9y ago
      Does that make them a bad example of a successful militia? Perhaps a successful militia requires significant financial and logistical backing from nation states, in addition to being well trained.
      • danans 9y ago
        In that case they are paramilitaries, not just militias.
• hueving 9y ago
  This question falsely presumes that the government's military is not also fractured by whatever is causing the militia to revolt. The military is made up of citizens.
  • pg314 9y ago
    But then why do you need the militia?
    • vkou 9y ago
      Because I want to a reason to own lots of guns.
    • hueving 9y ago
      To protect yourself from and fight against weakened fractions of the government. The military cannot occupy the entire space of the US so maintaining order of a tyrannical government would require a low ratio of military guards to citizens. With even 50% of the citizens potentially armed and willing to fight back, it's an untenable position for the government. A militia could fight just as effectively as the Taliban against the government and be several orders of magnitude larger. The US military is good at eliminating identified enemies, but it's pretty terrible at nation building and that's even in its strongest state.