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In the context of a civil war, counter-insurgency is a military term for the combat against a political rebellion, termed an "insurgency," by forces aligned with the standing government of the territory in which the combat takes place.

While in theory the term refers exclusively to hostility against combatants or militants, in reality the distinctions between "combatant" and "civilian" are often beyond the means of military intelligence to make competent discernments. As such, known counter-insurgency operations have often rested on a confused, relativistic, or otherwise situational distinction between combatant and civilians, and use of the terms "insurgent" and "counter-insurgent" themselves therefore have hinged on a subjective perception of the government's legitimacy. As such, the term "counter-insurgency" is somewhat cognate with colonialism, and the "suppression" of rebellion.

Overview

Counter-insurgency is normally conducted as a combination of conventional military operations and other means, such as Propaganda, Psy-Ops, and assassinations. Counter-insurgency operations include many different facades military, paramilitary, political, economic, psychological, and civic actions taken to defeat insurgency.

Counter-insurgency tactics are often controversial, sometimes involving human rights abuses and violations of civil liberties; such as internment, detention of familiy members of suspected insurgents as de facto hostages, extra-judicial killing of civilians and prisoners and torture. Tactics similar to those of guerrilla warfare and insurgency are sometimes used by the governments themselves, such as assassinations of suspected insurgents, extra-judicial executions of suspected insurgent sympathisers and irregular paramilitary operations by covert operatives who may not wear uniforms.

In many conflicts, counter-insurgency operations can kill more civilians than the insurgents themselves. This may especially occur when the insurgents have a sizable support base among certain sectors of the civilian population (or among the population as a whole), or when certain regions are predominantly under their influence or control. Examples of this include the US anti-insurgency operation in Iraq, Israeli counter-insurgency during the occupations of the Gaza Strip, West Bank and Lebanon, Indian Army counter insurgency operations in Kashmir and North-Eastern states of India, many anti-British colonial uprisings, the Caravan of Death in Chile, and many of the different paramilitary groups (such as the AUC) and death squads in Colombia.

It could also be argued that in US President George W. Bush's War on Terrorism, US and allied armed forces have by far killed more civilians than Al Qaeda, the Iraqi resistance and allied anti-US Islamist militants. According to Iraq Body Count, over 3,500 civilians were killed by anti-US paramilitaries between September 2001 and November 2003, compared to over 3000 civilians killed in Afghanistan and at least 10,000 killed in Iraq by US and allied forces. The Lancet journal subsequently estimated 98,000 (8000-194000) civilians died as a result of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and reported civilians deaths according to Iraq Body Count now exceed 25,000. Most (over a third) are attributed to US and allied forces, a similar amount to common criminals and only 9% to the insurgents. [http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673604174412/abstract.

An exception to this rule appears to be the most recent 1970s-1998 Troubles in Northern Ireland, in which Provisional IRA guerrillas are said to have killed the most people, including the most civilians, when compared to the British security forces and Loyalist paramilitaries. It is important to note that the RAF did not engage in aerial bombardment during this conflict, which tends to drastically increase civilian casualties when used against guerrillas.

Specific definitions

The U.S. Army published a Special Forces manual titled Counter-Insurgency Operations in 1960. The term was used by the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War and since the Autumn of 2004 has been used by them to describe ongoing operations in Iraq.

As used by the U.S. Army, counter-insurgency operations include psychological warfare and information warfare aspects of such operations, which include direct interference in a country's politics and media or the spread of disinformation (the civilian equivalent of military deception) to maintain control of a population.

Notable British counter-insurgency operations occurred during the difficult process of decolonization: for example, the Malayan Emergency, the Aden Emergency, and the Mau-Mau Emergency.

The U.S. military and allied South Vietnamese security forces conducted counter-insurgency operations against National Liberation Front guerrillas during the Vietnam War, including the notorious Phoenix Program which resulted in the killing of thousands of civilians accused of being NLF sympathisers or relatives of sympathisers.

The U.S., British and allied occupation forces and the Iraqi security forces are currently engaging in a counter-insurgency operation against various Iraqi guerrilla groups opposed to the presence of foreign troops and the current elected Iraqi government.

Tactics

With regard to tactics, the terms "drain the water" or "drain the swamp" are euphemistic for ethnic cleansing as based on political differences, and generally make little distiction based on civilian status. It often involves the relocation of the population ("water") to expose the guerrillas or insurgents ("fish"). In other words, relocation deprives the aforementioned of the support, cover, and resources of the local population. The name is taken from Mao Zedong's advice to his guerrillasto "move through the people like a fish moves through water".

British forces were able to employ the relocation method with considerable success during the Malayan Emergency. The Briggs Plan, implemented fully in 1950, relocated Chinese squatters into protected "New Villages", designated by British forces. By the end of 1951, some 400,000 Chinese had moved into the fortifications. Of this population, the British forces were able to form a "Home Guard", armed for resistance against the Malay Communist Party, an implementation mirrored by the Strategic Hamlet Program later used by U.S. forces in South Vietnam.

Somewhat similar strategy was used extensively by U.S. forces in South Vietnam, initially by forcing the rural population into fenced camps, referred to as Strategic Hamlets, and later by bombing them with B-52s to remove the rest from their villages and farms. Widespread use was made of chemical herbicides, sprayed from airplanes, to destroy crops that might possibly have provided resources for NLF fighters and their human support base.

COIN Aircraft

Since the 1960s, a specialized form of close air support has been developed for counter-insurgency operations. This covers a wide range of operations, from ground attack and observation to light transport and casualty evacuation. An aircraft used for counter-insurgency should ideally be able to perform all these roles. Such an aircraft should have low loitering speed, long endurance, simplicity in maintenance, and the capability to make short take-offs and landings from rough frontline airstrips.

At first (particularly during the Vietnam War) counter-insurgency missions were flown by existing airplanes and helicopters hastily adapted for the role, notably the Douglas A-1 Skyraider. Later, more specialized counter-insurgency (or COIN) aircraft began to appear, such as:

See also

External links

War | Rebellion

COIN機

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Counter insurgency".

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