TX2Guns: Why the Average Civilian Should Study Asymmetrical Warfare

I got asked this question the other day by a close friend and it occurred to me that I had never really plainly answered that question on this blog, even though I talk about the subject frequently. I think the best way to approach this subject is through historical precedent. It is no coincidence that in the study of Asymmetrical warfare, that the historical study and analysis is often the first step in understanding how to apply the principles of GW (Guerilla Warfare) in a practical and concise manner. So it is fitting that this same historical analysis be the very thing that quantifies it and makes it relevant to the “Average Joe”.

Since the beginning of time, man has sought to have power over other men. Before Democracy was birthed, we can read in volume after volume of history books about the terrible political experiments that were carried out through the ages to try to satisfy this thirst for control and power. No matter what people called them: Dictatorships, Totalitarianism or Communism, all of them eventually failed. And though it can be argued by historians and political scientist alikeWHY  exactly each of these experiments failed, whether it be Atheism or political corruption or both. The layman can piece together a fairly good explanation without a Phd to back it up. In a simple word:  Tyranny.

Websters defines Tyranny as:

“Cruel and unfair treatment by people with power over others;  a government in which all power belongs to one person; the rule or authority of a tyrant.”

The Free Dictionary defines it as:

Unjust or oppressive governmental power: A government in which a single ruleris vested with absolute power.”

No matter how you define it, or which definition you prefer, one thing is for certain from the historical record: Tyranny will only be tolerated for a season. Good people will only take abuse for so long before they FIGHT back and if history is an indicator, in most cases, PREVAIL. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at a couple of examples from History and see if this notion does not hold water, so to speak.

The first example comes from America’s very own beginnings. That’s right. The nation you live in and love and cherish (I Hope) was birthed out of REBELLION TO TYRANNY. See, way back in the 18th century there was this thing called the 13 Colonies and this really power-hungry country called England…Stop me if you have heard this one before. One thing led to another and there was this thing called The Boston Tea Party and then the “Shot heard round the World” and finally this document called the Declaration of Independence. Yeah, you get the picture. Well,  something you may not know is that besides the Colonial Army, which George Washington was the General of, there was also these things called Colonial Militias.

Now these militias were composed of every day civilian joes like you and me. They would meet up regularly to train with their RIFLES and work on their battlefield tactics. Well, long story short it was these militias that often dealt the British the most grief during the Revolutionary War. And by “grief” I mean these militias not only frustrated the British Army brass by their tactics, but also Killed a great number of their soldiers. Answering the “how” of this is quite simple: The militias very often did not fight like the British Army fought. The European battlefield standard in the 18th century was for two armies to ceremoniously march their armies out into a field, line up across from one another, aim their rifles and upon command, fire. You do not have to be a brilliant military strategist to realize that this method was about as stupid as pissing in the wind and wondering why you are getting wet.

Well, the militias also shared this opinion. So they employed different tactics, what the British back then called “Indian Fighting”; something the English army were painfully familiar with from the French and Indian War. During that period, Indian tribes allied with the French (like the Delaware, Huron and Shawnee) would often decimate entire British companies in the field using a combination of speed, knowledge of the terrain, surprise (ambush) and extreme violence of action (very often vicious hand-to-hand fighting with tomahawks, knives and clubs.) Instead of standing out in the open, the indian would hide behind a tree. Instead of fighting in an open field, the indian would attack in the thick woods, choosing the time and place of the engagement, thereby controlling it and ultimately winning. The militias,  took notice of these skill-sets and tactics and applied them accordingly. Not exactly what you would call “conventional military tactics” for that time period.

French-Indian-War

The Colonial militias utilized every aspect of this so-called “Indian fighting” (later to be termed Guerilla Warfare) to harass and decimate the British up and down the colonies. But nowhere were these tactics more evident and successful than in South Carolina, by a man named General Francis Marion, aka “The Swamp Fox.” To this day, Marion is credited with being one of the “fathers” of modern Guerilla Warfare methodology and is credited in the lineage of the US Army Rangers. Consequently, it was the US Army Rangers namesake, Robert Rogers and The Rogers Rangers who were credited with first adopting many of these “indian style” guerilla tactics and adapting them to light infantry reconnaissance while fighting with the British during the French and Indian War.

Moving across the globe to South Africa and ahead in time to right around the turn of the 20th century, we can find another great example of your average “joe” civilian forming militias and using “unconventional” tactics to fight a tyrannical invader. The Second Boer War  was yet another example of British Colonialism gone awry. You would think by now after getting their asses kicked out of America they would get the hint, but that is the curious thing about the English; their hubris sometimes blinds them to the obvious.

Before we get into the meat of this story, it will help you tremendously if you first understand who the Boer people were. THIS is one of the best descriptions I think.  One of the qualities of the Boers that I think is VERY important to understand for the modern-day armed civilian is that they were a people who were very COMFORTABLE with firearms and their use, most particularly the Rifle. Living in rural Africa during that time period (and even now) you had to be handy with a gun, not only for hunting but for PROTECTION from predators such as lions.

Boer Guerillas

Boer Guerillas

It is this “Familiarity” with Firearms that Boer parents encouraged with their children at a very young age that eventually created a nation of RIFLEMAN. It would be these rifleman, who in small squads, and using guerilla “hit-and-run” tactics would harass and at times, decimate the British Army by making “every round count” and using the terrain to their advantage to make the larger numbers of the British count for nothing.

Another important element of why the civilian should study Asymmetrical warfare, most importantly, the historic aspect, has to do with learning about the successes and mistakes of past counter-insurgency campaigns. Why? You may ask. Because by learning about these past successes or failures, you can better exploit, as a future guerilla (or insurgent) the mistakes of your enemy in future conflicts as it relates mostly to PUBLIC OPINION and SENTIMENT. Let me give you an example.

In the latter years of the War, the British in response to the successes of the Boers Guerilla Campaign by their “Kommandoes” (or Mounted Infantry Unit or Regiment)  instituted what would now be coined a “Scorched Earth” Policy. Any civilians who were thought to have aided the guerillas had their farms and houses burned, their livestock slaughtered and were typically sent off to “concentration camps”. As you can imagine these tactics were resented by the civilian populace; the Boer Kommando exploited that resentment and hate against the British to build consensus with the civilian population, whereby gaining a strong ally, both in the field and politically.

It can be said then that the Boers were successful in their Guerilla Campaign because of three Primary things:

  1. They tapped into NATIONALIST Sentiment.When a man or woman has PRIDE in what they are fighting for, they will often fight harder than they would otherwise.
  2. The Boers got the MAJORITY of the Population behind them. Public sentiment (both locally and globally) swings a big stick in Counter-Insurgency; it basically either makes you legit or not. Without public support, the British did not stand a chance. Look at any modern COIN example, like Afghanistan and you see the parallel.
  3. The Boer Kommando continuously sought to agitate the British to STRIKE out at the civilian populace;  because the more the British pissed off the public, Two things happened: the more the Boer’s Guerilla ranks would grow with new recruits and the LESS popular support the British would get. You see the cycle forming? That’s the essence of Guerilla Warfare right there.

So with just these two examples I just presented of everyday civilians having to take up the burden of becoming Guerilla Fighters in order that tyrannical government no longer rides rough-tread over their liberties and lives, I ask you, do you still wonder why an everyday civilian such as yourself should study Asymmetrical Warfare? Yeah, that is what I thought!

cyber-warfare-03

But alas, my story is not finished yet. Because even though these two stories were relevant and inspiring, they both happened quite a long time ago, and like all things that pass with time, warfare has modernized also. And oh yeah, there were these things called the personal computer the internet and social media invented somewhere in between all of this, so where does all that fit in? The simple answer to that is it fits in EVERYWHERE. Technology is King. The US Department of Defense announced that cyber-warfare is now the “fifth dimension” of warfare (To join Sea, Air, Land and Space.)

Here is a quote from their website concerning the new “cyber-mission” force:

“State and non-state actors threaten disruptive and destructive attacks against the United States and conduct cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property to undercut the United States’ technological and military advantage. DoD must develop its cyber forces and strengthen its cyber defense and cyber deterrence posture.”

Used too to be to rob a bank you needed a mask, a gun and a big set of nuts. Now, all you need is a good DSL connection and the cyber black hat skill-set’s that a large portion of teenagers across the globe possess. Used too to steal state secrets you needed really talented spies, now, yeah you guessed it, all you need is a good DSL connection and the cyber black hat skill-sets that most teenagers across the globe possess. Point being, technology is a weapon; and like any weapon it is inherently not good or evil, it just is. The good or evil comes from HOW it is used.

So where does this leave the 2015 modern guerilla? Where on the one hand you can look at how terrorist groups like ISIS exploit social media and the web for their own benefit; since guerilla warfare is essentially about “Controlling the Narrative” and gaining popular support to make their cause legitimate, there is no better place to do that than social media. One the other hand, the modern guerilla can look at how DEPENDENT not only modern armies but ENTIRE developed nations are on technology and see that as a definite weakness to be exploited..and they have been exploited BIG TIME. Consider the latest US Government OPM (Office of Personnel Management) Hack; called by one cyber-analyst our  “Cyber Pearl Harbor.” To put it simply: EVERY Federal Employee’s and Retiree’s information and up to a Million former federal employees personal information was compromised.

So, ultimately it can be said, that regardless of modernization and technology, there are definitely”Baseline” skill-sets that should NEVER change for the Guerilla, regardless of the time period. The Guerilla, to maintain his edge,  can never “depend”on technology to the degree a modern military (and the World) does. Example, the infantry officer that skips his compass and map reading training because he things he will always have his Garmin GPS unit…or the Artillery officer that never learned how to compute his firing solutions manually because of being spoiled to a computer, or worse of all, a Government agency that leaves senstive date unsecured. In all these cases, they are one EMP blast or one black hat hack away from being put back in the stone age and then what? What about the American civilian without their cell phone? Yeah, one word: Lost. These sheep have become so spoiled to “modern” conveniences they have become totally useless in the real sense of survival.

So in closing, the Modern Guerilla must know how to exploit and use technology, but never get too dependent on it to function. and survive. The guerilla must accept that the forthcoming battlefield will have a cyber element to it, without a doubt, but using the modern insurgencies of the time as a harbinger; the real battles will ultimately be one one bullet at a time and one bad PR news story (or Facebook Post) at a time, just like in our previous two examples showed. As I said, the Weapons (including technology) may change over time, but the Fundamentals of Guerilla Warfare never do.

Stay Alert, Armed and Dangerous!

 

Bibliography and Suggested Reading:

 

Future Crimes by Marc Goodman

Invisible Armies by Max Boot

The Savage Wars of Peace by Max Boot

War on the Run by John F. Ross

The Boer War by Thomas Parkenham

Special Operations in the American Revolution by Robert Tonsetic

Memoirs of a Rifleman Scout(Ebook) by Major F.M. Crum (British sniper whose career spans from the Boer War to WW1.)

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About the Author: NC Scout

NC Scout is the nom de guerre of a former Infantry Scout and Sergeant in one of the Army’s best Reconnaissance Units. He has combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a series of courses focusing on small unit skills rarely if ever taught anywhere else in the prepping and survival field, including his RTO Course which focuses on small unit communications. In his free time he is an avid hunter, bushcrafter, writer, long range shooter, prepper, amateur radio operator and Libertarian activist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via his blog at brushbeater.wordpress.com .

13 Comments

  1. Patrick Kelly June 27, 2020 at 07:34

    Excellent article. I have been a student of Asymmetric Warfare since 2001 when I started Grad School for a Masters of Science in International Relations. I wrote several position papers on AW back then and the only source of information was Rand Corp. My supervisor, a major, asked if he could proof read my reports for clarity. I was a Staff Warrant at the Special Warfare Center and he was so impressed with the new subject that he sent my reports forward to the General’s Staff for round table discussion. The SF Community had not yet started to learn or understand AW and my reports piqued their interest. Funny but then in 2009 when I was finishing up being med board out and flying a desk at SF Command I showed several of my reports to a major on staff who had just returned from the Navy Post Grad School and he made the comment that what I wrote was “nothing new” and that the people I quoted in my research were his professors at the NPGS in 2008. I pointed out the date on my papers which varied from June 2001 through November 2002 and also pointed out that his professors were then PhD research fellows at Rand Corp, meaning that I was seven years ahead of him on the subject of AW.THEN he was impressed. Net result here, damn fine research and a well written synopsis of a subject that is as old as mankind and difficult for most to comprehend due to the convoluted nature of AW and GW. Cudos to you again. Patrick Kelly, CWO4, USSF Retired

  2. Anonymous June 27, 2020 at 10:06

    5

  3. Steve June 27, 2020 at 10:36

    So why was there no equivalent in the USSR? Why didn’t the White Army simply hide in the terrain and continue fighting? Why was there no similar action taken in Rhodesia and now South Africa? Why are so many willing, if not enthusiastic about abandoning their liberties???
    Additionally, it must be asked whether the majority is to be followed when their desire is provably evil or at least has been shown to lead to evil in the past.

  4. h0neyc0mb June 27, 2020 at 11:50

    TYRANNY .. The un-equal application of laws / prosecution (i.e. justice) on the ruling class and the ruled class.

    We’ve been there for a long .. long .. time in USsA.

  5. NorthGunner June 27, 2020 at 12:11

    “..Before Democracy was birthed, we can read in volume after volume of history books about the terrible political experiments that were carried out through the ages to try to satisfy this thirst for control and power. No matter what people called them: Dictatorships, Totalitarianism or Communism, all of them eventually failed…”

    NC Scout,

    ‘democracy’ by it’s very nature IS pure unadulterated poison! It is such because of three
    interrelated issues:

    1. ‘Universal Suffrage’

    2. Giving women the un-earned privilege of voting AND empowering them out
    of all proportion.

    3. Allowing ‘Welfare’ to exist in ANY form.

    Granting universal suffrage to all people, instead of rightfully restricting it to
    ONLY net-tax payers and veterans insures that the lowest common denominator
    in society; the lazy, stupid, apathetic dipshit loosers (many of whom are black and
    a majority of whom are women – see below) WILL overwhelm the net -tax payers
    and veterans as a majority and they WILL vote themselves ‘endless free shit’ at
    the expense of both the net-tax payers, veterans and the best interests of the country!
    Exactly this HAS happened in the FUSSA as we’ve all seen over the last 100 years or so.

    women do NOT deserve the privilege of voting as 1. they are in the majority NOT either
    net-tax payers or veterans. 2. the overwhelming majority of women ARE not rational
    critical thinking individuals, they ARE overwhelmingly overgrown children that only approach
    reality and problem solving via their “FEELINGS” (case in point – everyone pretty much now
    knows that the ‘beer virus’ was and is a total nothingburger with a real leathality rate of 0.026%
    yet the MAJORITY of people that one will see out and about wearing an utterly useless ‘face
    panty’ are women..and especially those between 30 -60 years old..they still BELIEVE that
    the ‘big bad virus’ is out to get them!!..this is completely analagous to a child BELIEVING that
    “there’s a ugly monster under my bed!! REALLY..ya gotta believe me!!!). Keep this in mind
    when I tell you that the MAJORITY of the electorate ARE women – 56%!!! There is NO way
    that America is going to be turned around from going ‘Full Venezuela’ because the majority
    of women in America ARE bolshevist in nature in their morality. Men are mostly ‘justice based’
    in their morality, whereas women are ‘care [via ‘FEELINGS’] based morality’; women by a vast
    majority want to base solutions to problems by “making it ‘fair and equal’ for all” (which is complete
    insanity because NEITHER ‘fairness’ nor ‘equality’ exist anywhere in reality..only the attempt at
    ‘equality before the law’ or ‘fairness to either succeed or fail in life’ which is NOT what women
    either will accept or want. It should be noted that women’s desires for ‘equality’ is the PRIME
    virtue of bolshevism..that ‘all shall be equal, there will be NO distinctions tolerated or accepted’.
    Of course anywhere that bolshevism has been implemented the result has always been mass
    death by the bolshevist’s liquidating the ‘useful idiots’ after the “revolution” as well as dissidents
    that HAVEN’T wisely fled (see Venezuela) and then mass death via starvation being the next
    immediate thing to happen…but ‘Karen’ either doesn’t know or care….
    In any case, granting women the un-earned privilege of voting HAS and IS an unmittigated
    disaster for any country that allows it as the women WILL vote along bolshevistic lines because
    their ‘feelings’ guide them to.

    Welfare is completely poisonous to a society, especially a capitalistic one as it rewards,
    sloth, laziness, stupidity and non-performance by the lowest dregs of that society at the
    extreme expense of those that DO produce wealth and value. The greatest drain on a
    society (especially the FUSSA) is by three distinct groups; women, inner-city blacks and
    indians (and no, I’m not talking about the ‘dot on the head’ indians that work doing coding
    or in a call-center..they’re actually net-tax payers). Women, disproportionatly HAVE continually
    voted for more and more welfare to benefit themselves ever since August 20th 1920..they’ve
    also voted for the growth and invasiveness of ‘gov’ since then…looks like ‘Karen’ is a LOT
    older than most people think… Welfare is at this point the metastizing financial cancer
    that rapidly continues to destroy ‘Mureica via women and the parsitic lowest common
    denominators voting…institutional cannibalism writ large.

    Currently ‘democracy’ in the ‘FUSSA’ exists to allow the the self-cannibilization
    by the aforementioned ‘voting’ groups. Because of women having an unbreakable
    lock on being the majority of the electorate, and ‘victim groups’ continuing to be able
    to vote even though they have NEVER earned the privilge, the downward spiral WILL
    continue until ‘Murieca becomes the ‘Yugoslavia’ of the Western Hemispher.

    Unless…

    Unless MEN take women’s vote away, stop empowering them and the lowest
    common cancerous denominators in society and end ALL welfare both here
    and abroad..

    If one doesn’t want to do the above, creating one’s own cultural ‘No-Go Zone’
    is strongly advised for general survival.

    Those ARE currently the options.
    And no, ‘voting’ ISN’T one of them..unless one becomes a ‘Roof Korean’ in
    their ‘No-Go Zone’ along with their fellows.

    NorthGunner – The Truth Is It’s OWN Defense!

  6. SoCoRuss June 27, 2020 at 15:52

    Are there any training books instead of the list of historical books shown on reading list

    • NC Scout June 27, 2020 at 20:06

      History books are better training books than any “training book”.

  7. Anonymous June 27, 2020 at 16:01

    4.5

  8. Goose June 27, 2020 at 17:45

    Electrical power is the key. Take that away and nothing works (go for the cooling system). Drones, computers, communications, water sewer, alarms survalance all go down and use your imagination. As a guerrilla all you need is your gear and some water, you go to ground after the deed. Take out their eyes and ears and all is mute. They can watch you spray paint their cameras and then they are blind. Those big boxes at every traffic signal are very vulnerable, If your phone is off, the battery removed and in a metal box they cannot track you. Cover the plate on your auto and no tracking, cover the antenna on the top pf your auto. Always now wear your mask and wrap around sun glasses in your auto. Antifa is now tracking the home address of the police (leave them alone there are many good guys who need to choose) you can do the same for the politicians especially the lawyers, your real enemy, who support them. You the lone wolf or maybe a very small pack.

    Join the call to defund the police they are the one tool of tyranny that will not let tyranny exist if they do not. You can defend yourself and will not get arrested if there are no police. Remember the KGB, Stasi, FBI, ATF and all of the rest are the enemy of the common man and the supporter of the government. These organizations are not able to do anything without the neighborhood rat(s), all rats need rat posion.

    Get comms you will need them more than ammo. Nothing counts for more than support of those who are you. Remember the guy who stayed out in the woods for 5 years with every 3 letter fed shit pile looking for him. It can be done.

  9. SemperFi, 0321 June 27, 2020 at 20:40

    @Patrick Kelly;
    Pat, you formerly of The Scuba Diving Co. and TV in Boise? I’m former mgr at SDC and Recon buddy S.

  10. mihais (@mihais81) June 27, 2020 at 23:11

    “Why the White Army did not hide in the terrain…?”

    It did.Also after WW2 partisans hid in the terrain in the Baltics,Romania,Poland,Ukraine.But,just as the British won the Boer war by sending the entire population to the concentration camp,so did the Soviets/Commies won by killing hundreds of thousands guerilla friendly civilians and by deporting millions.
    Basically,a hearts and minds approach works,if the enemy cares about that.The Commies didn’t.They took the civilians hostage by the tens of millions.

  11. Machine Trooper June 28, 2020 at 01:21

    Another good article, NC Scout. Good comments, too (though I am unable to reply to comments no matter what browser I use).

    The Boers are a good example.

    A successful resistance (which includes guerrilla and underground components) needs to make the cost of collaboration higher than the cost of resistance, for the population. But Mihaus has a point: communists have little regard for human life other than their own, and have quite often trumped the hearts-and-minds quotient by putting everyone to the sword.

  12. Steve June 28, 2020 at 20:42

    Another great article, as well as a very timely topic. I have an interest in The Boer War, both as a student of asymmetrical warfare and the fact that I rarely hear anyone mention it. I have a book in transit called “The Siege Of O’Okiep” by Peter Burke and it deals with the guerrilla campaign during that war. Another one I’m trying to get my hands on is, “The Boer War A History” from Denis Judd and Keith Surridge. Since we were on the topic Scout, I thought I’d throw those two titles out there. Be safe and stay frosty everyone!

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