DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - An Un-winnable War?

**lrtoinbert** · 08-08-2010, 02:54 PM

The colonial powers won wars against enemies that did not wear shoes, in an age where communications were limited, and the world was a lot larger, and they only "won" if you take a snap shot on a particular date in history, if you look at the map today, all the empires of the colonial powers are gone.

And most of them not through being defeated by guerilla armies. Most colonies were given up willingly, or primarily through pressure on the home front, not because they got booted.

As for the power differential, it's greater today than in colonial times. Taliban AK-47s and 1970s rocket launchers vs. the US military is actually a lot LESS useful than scimitars and horses vs. muskets. It shows in the casualty rates. The colonial powers used to take pretty steep casualties during engagements in those wars. US forces have yet to experience a high casualty event, defined as 100 fatalities in a single battle. Never even came close. Compare that to Vietnam, where US forces regularly lost hundreds dead in battles.

The Phillipines are independent because we chose to make them independent.

Also, we don't need much space to create a stable Afghan government. A year or two of relative peace is sufficient. I think we'd gladly take the 35 years of peace between the defeat of Aguinaldo and the setting up of a functioning Filipino government.

08-08-2010, 02:54 PM	#29
lrtoinbert Join Date Nov 2005 Posts 380 Senior Member	The colonial powers won wars against enemies that did not wear shoes, in an age where communications were limited, and the world was a lot larger, and they only "won" if you take a snap shot on a particular date in history, if you look at the map today, all the empires of the colonial powers are gone. And most of them not through being defeated by guerilla armies. Most colonies were given up willingly, or primarily through pressure on the home front, not because they got booted. As for the power differential, it's greater today than in colonial times. Taliban AK-47s and 1970s rocket launchers vs. the US military is actually a lot LESS useful than scimitars and horses vs. muskets. It shows in the casualty rates. The colonial powers used to take pretty steep casualties during engagements in those wars. US forces have yet to experience a high casualty event, defined as 100 fatalities in a single battle. Never even came close. Compare that to Vietnam, where US forces regularly lost hundreds dead in battles. The Phillipines are independent because we chose to make them independent. Also, we don't need much space to create a stable Afghan government. A year or two of relative peace is sufficient. I think we'd gladly take the 35 years of peace between the defeat of Aguinaldo and the setting up of a functioning Filipino government.
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