Quote Originally Posted by William F. Owen View Post
True but irrelevant. Rhodesia's' UDI government was never strategically sustainable. That it lasted as long as it did is a testament to a rare level of military skill.
The Insurgency failed as a military instrument, but succeeded thanks to the intervention of the international community. That's all.
All military power can assure is that ARMED FORCE is not the deciding factor. It cannot make up for all instruments of power. However, without it, you have nothing else.
William, we were indeed lucky we probably faced the most incompetent enemy possible except for possibly for PLAN (SWAPOs military wing). We could have done a whole lot better. I could have done a whole lot better. I guess despite all the good things so many people did as long as there was a bolt hole for whites to move South the shrinking population and the sanctions were crushing. Our collective mindset was not that we were on the edge of a precipice we were still doing so well militarily and SFAs (security force auxiliaries) were starting to make a difference in the rural areas.

It took too long for the politicians to understand that we had 80% of our forces being black and they were incredibly loyal to an alternative process than that being demanded by Zanu and Zapu.

Here is an interesting view from Nick Downie a independent TV cameraman who had a Brit SAS background for your interest.

http://www.rhodesianforces.org/Rhode...competence.htm

We had a saying about the gooks and that was "he who fights and runs away gets to run another day" (I guess it was an understanding that once a man has fled in the face of the enemy it is not likely that he will ever be able to stand his ground).