On Thu, 21 Apr 2005 02:09:38 -0400, Kirk Gordon
wrote:

(snips)

It's interesting what sentiments can do to our outlook on things. If
law enforcement officials take precautions to protect against "rebels"
and the potential for danger, that's a rebel victory almost as good as
actually shutting down a national capital.

In the case given, law enforcement officials didn't "take
precautions to protect against "rebels."" They flailed
around helplessly for several days (or was it weeks?)
without a clue as to how to stop the shootings. A truck
driver was most responsible for putting a stop to them. As
the previous poster accurately pointed out, make that 50
teams instead of one, and the U.S. society pretty much comes
to a halt. And law enforcement officials wouldn't be able
stop that, no matter what they did. The only reason it
hasn't already happened is that there aren't 100 such
motivated people in the U.S.

and the potential for danger But when the government
forces actually kill or imprison some of those same rebels, it's not a
victory for the government, or a serious loss for the rebel cause, since
there are lots more rebels where those came from.

You have described Fourth Generation Warfare. It's a real
bitch.

If you were a chess player, I suspect you'd sacrifice your queen to
capture one of my pawns, and then claim that you'd won a great victory
by hurting me and teaching me a lesson. Sebsequent moves might
demonstrate otherwise.

Get your analogy strait. In 4GW, the enemies don't
sacrifice queens. They throw a bunch of pawns at you and,
if they're successful, wear you down and defeat you. The
interesting twist is that the more convinced you are that
they can't do it, the more likely it is that they can.

--
Robert Sturgeon
Summum ius summa inuria.
http://www.vistech.net/users/rsturge/