- On the one hand, you can read…
The Australian Army Counterinsurgency and Small Wars Reading Guide
edited by Jeffrey Grey
Land Warfare Studies Centre
Working Paper No.135
September 2009
[PDF]
Historical case studies
Insurgent or irregular warfare played a role in the wars of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, though it was never the decisive element in its own right. During the American War of Independence, the Civil War, and Napoleon’s war in Spain, guerrilla or irregular forces were an important—even vital—adjunct to the operations of regular armies, and their contributions need to be understood in that context. The international anarchist movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was the al-Qaeda of its time, given to spectacular acts of terrorism usually involving the assassination of crowned heads and other leading political figures of the established order. It provides a useful comparison for terrorist activities more recently.
Pre-20th Century
Walter Edgar, Partisans & Redcoats: The Southern Conflict That Turned the Tide of the American Revolution, William Morrow, New York, 2001
John Grenier, The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2005
Thomas Goodrich, Black Flag: Guerrilla Warfare on the Western Border, 1861–1865, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1995
Don W Alexander, Rod of Iron: French Counterinsurgency Policy in Aragon during the Peninsular War, Scholarly Resources Inc, Wilmington, 1985
Charles J Esdaile, Fighting Napoleon: Guerrillas, Bandits and Adventurers in Spain, 1808–1814, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2004
John Lawrence Tone, The Fatal Knot: The Guerrilla War in Navarre and the Defeat of Napoleon in Spain, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1994
Richard Bach Jensen, ‘The International Campaign Against Anarchist Terrorism, 1880–1930s’, Terrorism and Political Violence, Vol. 21, No. 1, Autumn 2009
Whitney Kassel, ‘Terrorism and the International Anarchist Movement of the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries’, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, Vol. 32, No. 3, March 2009
NB. The Land Warfare Studies Centre (LWSC) is the Army’s principal conceptual research institution. The LWSC supports the Chief of Army, Army Headquarters and the Army as a whole through a range of research, publication, conference and visiting fellow programs.
The Land Warfare Studies Centre is tasked to:
* Promote the wider understanding and appreciation of land warfare
* Provide an institutional focus for applied research into the study of land warfare, and
* Raise the level of professional and intellectual debate within the Australian Army
- On the other hand…
RITA = ‘Resistance Inside The Army’. From Vietnam era see: Sir! No Sir! & Winter Soldier. Also Iraq Veterans Against the War & Australian veterans’ organisation Stand Fast.
reminds me of this classical text
…this stuff too…
TEXTBOOK REPRESSION: US TRAINING MANUALS DECLASSIFIED
Lisa Haugaard
Covert Action Quarterly
No.61, Summer 1997
The Australian Army has a super record of helping to train soldiers in Indonesia, esp vewy Special Force Command/Kopassus. They, along w regular units, make sure the peoples of Indonesia, esp in Irian Jaya — which terrorists call ‘West Papua’ — are safe, relaxed, and comfortable. For many years, they also made a v significant contribution to the health and happiness of the peoples of East Timor.
Note that, several years ago, during the course of making a doco on East Timorese subversives, the Communist John Pilger used Kremlin gold to denounce
Professor Genocidethe ‘Soldier of Peace’ Gareth Evans:It should be further noted that, while Evans’ contribution to stability in the area was significant, credit should also be given to Labor as a whole: Whitlam‘s eager recognition of Indonesian state control of the former Portuguese colony in 1975 was fitting tribute to the fuzzy wuzzy angels who risked their lives to help save the lives of Aussie diggers in WWII.
Finally, an honourable mention to Detachment 88, which totally kicks terrorist arse, and whose own contributions to peace, justice, and countersubversion have recently been noted by the SMH.
See also : Arrests in Jayapura (March 24, 2010) | Treaty a real Downer for West Papua (November 12, 2006).
Bonus Death!
Political prisoner dies as ‘truth walks slowly’
Tom Allard
The Age
September 15, 2010
(“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” ~ Mark Twain (attrib.).)
meanwhile in the UK, yesterday’s issue of the “socialist” daily Morning Star was sponsored by the prison guards’ union ;-(