Is It Possible Defeat a Guerrilla Insurgency?

I have come to conclude that the Iraq and Afghan conflicts are virtually unwinnable. Now that we're almost a decade into the conflcits, one has to wonder if a popular insurgency can ever be defeated. Robert Kaplan has a piece in The Atlantic on how the Sri Lankan government defeated the Tamil Tigers. It wasn't pretty, and the US and NATO troops will never be permitted to try the brutal tactics. Here's two examples:

The insurgents are using human shields? No problem. Just keep killing the innocent bystanders until you get to the fighters themselves. There is no comparison between the few civilians that have been killed by American Predator drones in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, and the many that were killed by the Sri Lankan government. The Americans have carefully targeted select al-Qaeda members and, in the process, killed a few—at the most, dozens—of civilians among whom the fighters were surrounded. By contrast, the Sri Lankan military indiscriminately killed large numbers of civilians—as many as 20,000 in the final months of fighting, according to the United Nations.

Bad media coverage is hurting morale and giving succor to the enemy? Just kill the journalists. That's what the Sri Lankan authorities did. Precisely because insurgencies are unconventional, there are no easy-to-follow infantry advances and retreats, so the media holds the power to shape a narrative for the public. Aware of the need for a compliant media to aid the war effort, the Sri Lankan government struck fear into the ranks of journalists. There were hundreds of disappearances of top opinion leaders.

In the run up to the Afghan War and more particularly, the Iraq War, was anybody asking if the Americans had a solution for a guerilla uprising? They lost Vietnam that way, you would think somebody might have. I guess nobody thought of it.

It should also be noted that it took Sri Lanka 26 years to totally defeat them. I can't see a democratic society accepting a commitment for that long.

Tamils Use Children as Shields to Blockade Toronto Highway

When you come to Canada you should drop your Sri Lankan politics. I don't know how they're going to garner sympathy when they pull crap like this. 'Unlawful' Tamil protest blocks Toronto highway

The Tamil protest has spilled onto Toronto's Gardiner Expressway Sunday, blocking traffic in both directions-- and there's no end in sight.

Hundreds of people from Toronto's Tamil community, including women with babies in strollers, marched up the highway ramp on Spadina Avenue at around 7 p.m. to protest the violence against civilians in Sri Lanka.

They are demanding to speak to a representative of Prime Minister Stephen Harper about the civil war in Sri Lanka. Police have said that will not be possible.

How do they think this is going to win over the Canadian public? But here's the real outrage...

Blair said he was extremely concerned about the presence of children at the protest and said the elevated highway itself was very dangerous for people on foot.

"I'm very concerned about the safety of children, I think it's an extremely dangerous situation to put children on the front line of a protest in that way, I think it puts them at tremendous risk' he said.

They bring children, and put them in harm's way, so the police (or motorists) can't break them up. Disgusting! Outrageous! I don't care what their cause is!