Absolutely agree on the silver lining aspect you mention, but what if they do enough damage by simply ensuring the territory acquired remains un- or under-governed space, and never aim to take on responsibility for governance, essential services, and the like?
I am reminded of the time in the end of April 2013 when my company was tasked to round up a group of local toughs who were terrorizing a village and causing all sorts of ills for a sheik a few miles to the west of Diwaniyah. He claimed they were stealing vehicles previously owned by the government, shooting up his small town, and generally terrorizing the area.
We drove off and got to the spot in short order, finding several government-looking buildings burned out or actively burning, and an empty town square/market area. Within five minutes of arrival, the center was swarming with able-bodied grown men, and the crush got so great I worried about being able to extract ourselves from the blocking positions. Why they men had not gotten up off their knees, picked up their AK from behind the back door of their home, and shot those knuckleheads dead baffled me for a long time. Instead, they had been able to slip away before we arrived.
We didn't get any solid leads until someone fingered an old man, who was passing by on the street, as a distant relative of the bandit family. We bundled him into a vehicle and made him show us the location of his clan's area, and it wasn't more than 5 miles east of the town we were in!
The gang that had originally been reported as possessing crew-served weapons, and moving around in platoon-minus strength turned out to be five brothers with a couple of busted up AKs, scampering around in the ubiquitous red racing stripe Isuzu pickup truck. They were detained and dumped off at Blue Diamond Headquarters without ceremony, to an intelligence officer and battle captain who said we needed to hold on to them since we'd captured them. They must have not expected we'd actually accomplish the mission and bring back five younguns' in the back of a pickup truck.
A town versus five guys...No action.
Bookmarks