MovieChat Forums > Battle for Haditha (2008) Discussion > Cowardly Insurgents!

Cowardly Insurgents!

posted 16 years ago by bth21
13 replies | jump to latest

it is true when the marines say that the insurgents are cowardly for hiding amongst civilians. their actions are directly responsible for more iraqis being killed so they are contradicting themselves.

another massive contradiction is the fact that if they are truly matryrs, wouldn't it be wise to meet allied forces head on instead of planting ieds. i mean if you believed, really believed, you were going to heaven for commiting such cowardly acts, wouldn't you be willing to give your life in the name of islam? wouldn't you be queueing up to sacrifice yourself in the knowledge that you were going to heaven? it's just another way religion is used to manipulate the weak minded. if the insurgents could mount any kind of offensive that consisted of open, or more "traditional" warfare it would be over in moments. but again, surely you would want to go straight to heaven.

[–] shawnr-5 16 years ago

Maybe it would be brave to meet allied forces head on instead of planting IEDS but it would also be dumb and 100% suicide since the allied forces are by far superior.

You should compare the IEDS with US bombardment or do you call bombing cities from high in the sky is a brave thing to do?

[–] treetherealest 15 years ago

shawnr-5 explained it perfectly.

Martin, the difference between our troops "going ballistic" and the insurgents "going ballistic" is that the insurgents have no shame in what they are doing. The things our troops do are somehow still embraced by people and considered heroic. In many ways quite a few troops and the insurgents are the same thing..except the insurgents aren't lying to themselves...and sadly their honesty about what they are doing gives them a slight more moral advantage as bad as that sounds. Both are wrong though..no doubt.

[–] Petey1981 16 years ago

Any indiginous force waging a war against a foreign and vastly superior military force wages guerilla warfare. It's just how it's done. There's no way the insurgents could wage open warfare against the US. They'd be anihilated in probably one battle. The only tactics they have are the ones they use. I'm not condoning it at all. I'm just saying wishing they'd wage a traditional war against the US forces is a ridiculous thing to say.

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[–] Warge 15 years ago

Interestingly enough: During the American War of Independence, the Americans fought a guerilla war against the English and did so very successfully; the one and only time they stood up as an army and fought the English as the English wanted (armies lined up on opposite sides of a field), the Americans were throughly beaten.

Now, were the Americans cowards fighting the way they usually did, hitting the English from behind, in ambushes and generally making life miserable for the enemy?

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[–] bth21 15 years ago

The point was to do with the nature of martyrdom.

To say the U.S "lost" the Vietnam War is quite a vague statement. Surely the political restrictions and social perceptions of the war made traditional victory somewhat unattainable.

[–] kwacka2 15 years ago

"To say the U.S "lost" the Vietnam War is quite a vague statement."

Accepting that there are no winers in war, only losers - who 'came first'?

[–] bth21 15 years ago

Very good point kwacka.

It also validates my point on Vietnam though.

People often speak with too much overt relish when stating the U.S "lost" Vietnam.

[–] euromullet 15 years ago

There is no question that the US lost Vietnam. The United States entered the war with the clear objective of preventing a communist take over of South Vietnam. The objective for the North was to unify the country.

[–] martinesquives 16 years ago

Well the insurgents are trained/manipulated to do like this. A cowardly attack like an IED pisses the troops off, and who can blame them? They are under an enourmous amount of stress constantly and when something like this happens it isn't hard to understand they react like they do. No matter how wrong it is. I mean, if someone hurts or kill my family/friends I would go ballistic. Most people would.
Its an endless circle of death and hatred. So the IED does what the insurgents want. It kills and creates hatred. Hatred that will be inflicted on the Iraqui people which gives the insurgents more recruits.
I guess as someone else said in this forum a well trained marine is supposed to act professional. I'm not sure I could do that if I found my friends blown to pieces.

[–] jfarrackand 15 years ago

Quote "A cowardly attack like an IED pisses the troops off, and who can blame them?"

You must be kidding, how is an IED any different than an ambush?
The point is to make the other guy die for his country, not you die for yours.
This is also similar to sniper warfare, you kill or more maim an enemy combatant from a quarter mile away and disappear. If done properly the enemy has almost zero chance of stopping or catching you.

Quote "I mean, if someone hurts or kill my family/friends I would go ballistic."

The US killed approximately 100,000 civilians in the invasion of Iraq.
Maybe the U.S. created insurgents/freedom fighters/revolutionaries when they blew up families. If you haven't seen it try watching Generation Kill.

[–] henhute6 15 years ago

In my opinion only cowardly action was shown by marines. They have superior equipment and were hiding like children after 2 insurgents shoot few bursts to their direction. Insurgents escaped and Americans start to kill civilians. What a bunch of cowards!

Vietnam was the last real war for Americans. And they lost that too. No wonder as they can't fight like men.

[–] 9inchnail 15 years ago

If it's cowardly to plant bombs, the resistance fighters in France, Poland, etc. during World War II were cowards, too.

What do you expect? The insurgents don't have tanks, aircrafts not even body armor. Some of them might have AKs but that's pretty much it, they can't attack head on, because you could freakin' kill them with a slingshot. They have no protection and guerilla warfare is the only way of fighting a superior enemy. Worked for the Vietnamese, the Chinese (Maoists) and so on. Kill the enemy, steal his gear and get the hell away. You grow stronger, your enemy loses ground, moral and power.

[–] 15 years ago

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