Rhodesian COIN (consolidated thread, inc original RLI)

[JMA]

Yes, I wrote anti-colonialist freedom fighters, for the regime defended by Rhodesians and South Africans was one of extreme exploitation of the human rights-deprived black huge majority. I don't care what kind of outside assistance they got. It's a shame on us Westerners that the Soviets had to step in to help the oppressed. We should have fixed that mess. Rhodesia and South Africa effectively were huge slave camps with Whites running the them as self-enriching wardens. Both countries had fully deserved a declaration of war and invasion by the Western world, but the threat would probably have sufficed.

I know the freedom fighters were also called terrorists, but that's a largely pointless term during times of guerilla war. During war, the party with inferior practical repertoire makes use of what it got, even if this means to simply lay mines and burn down some houses of civilians. Heck, even the Allies did it on a scale never seen before or after - despite material and numerical superiority.

I'm sorry that the Rhodesian war experience is so painful for one with a German origin. I appreciate that the military skills of the German forces in WW2 are under valued and under acknowledged because of the Nazi connotations. I believe and have been on record here that despite the scale of human rights abuses perpetrated as both national policy and as carried out in the field being both shocking and horrific there is a lot to learn from the German methods of warfighting etc.

I wonder why you single out little Rhodesia and slightly bigger South Africa for this belated attention and the belief that an armed invasion by the West was justified when dealing with real or imagined human rights abuses even in today's 'enlightened' world never happens even if there is some wringing of hands. Some time ago I posted a recent scale of freedom levels worldwide and failed to detect any demand from you for the West to invade any country in order to set "the people free". So the deduction is simple you have a reason to focus only on the two countries you mentioned while ignoring every other where real or alleged abuse has or is taking place.

Maybe the problem lies within you given your background?

There is a definition of terrorism... go look it up. That the cause may in your opinion justify the means does not make the method anything other than terrorism.