Guerrilla war: Israel and Sri Lanka

Guerrilla war. It's said that's how we won our war of independence, that an outside power can never overcome a determined populace. The Vietnamese would no doubt agree. Indeed, while there are examples of guerilla action during WWII, modern guerrilla warfare would seem to date from Vietnam in the 1950s.

Fifty years of guerrilla wars, and we should ask ourselves how much we have learned-- as individuals, as a nation, as a planet. The answer is, not much.

For those of us who have studied such wars, there are certain truths that are incontrovertible:

1) An ethnic war cannot be "won," except by exterminating one of the groups involved.

2) Guerrilla insurgencies are extremely difficult for governments to win, because the inevitable "cycle of violence" benefits the guerillas.
[more]