26 ms·
> Modern warfare hasn’t figured out urban insurgencies. Only in a sense of US rules of engagement. However, look at other less scrupulous countries dealing w
by ivalm 7y ago
> Modern warfare hasn’t figured out urban insurgencies.
Only in a sense of US rules of engagement.
However, look at other less scrupulous countries dealing with urban combat and you will see that while bloody they can pacify quickly.
If you know that resisting means death of your family, you're less likely to resist.
If your neighbour's best way to safeguard his family is to expose every guerilla fighter he knows he will do it.
The thing is, it won't be pyhrric victory, it will be a full and near lossless victory for PLA. Most HKers will lay down their arms because people generally dont want to die in a hopeless struggle and collective punishment will flush out the remaining guerrillas.
- JumpCrisscross 7y ago> while bloody they can pacify quickly This is far from universal. Chechnya was bloody. Syria remains bloody. Short of razing a city, we don’t have great tools for fighting urban insurgencies.
- ivalm 7y agoHistorically: 1. Chechnya WAS pacified when Russians started using inhumane tactics. 2. Chechnya had an organized military to fight Russians. 3. Chechnya and Syria had rebels use military equipment of similar quality as their adversary. 4. Assad and Yeltzin's armies were very mismanaged/poor quality. I posit that PLA is 1. Actually professional and not disorganized like russian/Syrian militaries 2. HKers will not be able to capture PLA equipment in any significant amounts
- swirepe 7y ago> less scrupulous countries dealing with urban combat Do you have any examples? I'm not challenging you, I just don't know much about this topic.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- ivalm 7y agoISIS conquering land in Iraq and Syria Taliban taking over cities in Afghanistan More "police" actions: China pacifying Uighur and Tibet regions. El-Sisi pacifying Muslim brotherhood in Egypt. Basically, intense indiscriminate violence "solves" some problems.
- Iv 7y agoYou can level a whole block when your troops are attacked and "win". If China does that, it goes from "that not-fantastic-country that produces cheap iPhones" to "this-is-where-blood-diamonds-come-from". The way it will act can have a direct and profund impact on its exports and GDP.
- ivalm 7y agoI dont think it would have that bad of consequences. Look at what Saudis are doing, they literally are leveling blocks and no one really does anything about it.
- Iv 7y agoQuit the contrary, I just answered to that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20687962 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20687962 Kashoggi's murder basically killed a 500 billion dollar project.
- ivalm 7y agoKind off, note this was a prestige project, financial loss of it is probably minimal (now the money will be put in broad market)...
- Iv 7y agoThe goal was to compete with Dubai and create a new trade hub on a well chosen place. It had a thousand ways to fail, but it did mostly because of Kashogi's murder.