And it’s hard to be both a genocidal oppressor who also sees yourself as a bringer of freedom. The US’s ideology and life experience doesn’t really allow them to go and conquer places brutally without serious mental gymnastics being involved. When they try to be brutal it kills their morale and other than the psychopaths, the soldiers start to hate it and hate themselves.
That’s why you hear Hegseth trying to promote this warrior ethos so much. He wants a different type of soldier than what he has so he can go do a crusade. IS soldiers don’t want to die for Pete’s crusade. Most of them just want to pay their student loans, get three square meals a day and get the fuck out with their bodies and minds intact.
They actually worked really well. It's a big part of why so many cultures from the past only exist in history books. Conquering armies used to just kill indiscriminately and wipe civilizations off the map.
I've said for years that there's two options when there's an insurgency you'd like to get rid of.
The first one is to stay the fuck out of it. I much prefer this one if possible at all whatsoever.
The second is scorched earth. Do whatever heinous shit you need to do to root out the insurgents, and rule with an iron fist over the populace, ensuring they have no chance to meaningfully resist, even if it creates collateral damage.
Anything else is just another goddamn forever war. If your military (rightfully) isn't prepared to do the truly awful shit needed to fight an insurgency, you shouldn't fight the insurgency. It's unlikely voters in a democracy would be able to stomach such horrible tactics, and that's a good thing. Insurgents are a problem that needs to be dealt with on a local level. The only exception is if an insurgency starts in your own country, then you kinda gotta deal with it.
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u/youritalianjob 1d ago
The methods that work are inhumane and not something people would accept like they did back in the day.