In article ,
Simon Morden wrote:

Michael Ash wrote:

Well, don't forget that only a very tiny percentage of any regular army
will be composed of people fanatical enough to become suicide bombers.
Your four-million strong Elbonian People's Happy Army will turn into a
handful of suicide bombers and a whole bunch of deserters if you tried
that strategy. Not to say it may not be the best use of that army, but I
don't think it would be that effective.

Of course. I 've no idea of your background, but AFAIK suicide terrorism is
very
much a minority sport. November 17, IRA, INLA, Bader-Minhoff, and most of the
worlds' terrorist/ex-terrorist organisations much rather killed their
'enemies'
than themselves. A bombing campaign by a cell is a much better use of human
resources.

My background isn't much. The closest I've come to any experience in
this area is visiting Israel smack in the middle of the two week
ceasefire they had in June of 2001.

In any case, I fully believe you. My statement was mostly CYA. I don't
think that making everybody be a suicide bomber is terribly effective,
but I don't know enough to rule it out. I do recall thinking, during the
fall of Iraq and the immediate aftermath, that a trained monkey could
probably do a better job of defending that country. Take all of those
army units that got surrounded/wiped out/whatever and simply distribute
them throughout the cities. Give each one a rifle, give RPGs to as many
as you can. Tell them to wait in a building by the window. When they see
Americans, shoot (at) them. As it was, I suppose the high ranks were too
busy trying to get out of harm's way with as much cash as possible to
put any effort into making life hard on the US Army.