Re: Communication and Travel

John spake thusly upon matters weighty: 
> And you protect these tax collectors how?  Unless you're planning to 
> threaten orbital bombardment every time his house gets firebombed/he 
> get sniped at/his office is set on fire/etc.
> 
> >It rather depends on the level of civil disobedience and guerilla 
> >activity. I'm not sure what number of troops the soviets needed to 
> >keep Hungary in line. Probably many at the start, reducing as the 

A point to remember though: Although I can't remember the exact
number (I could find it if I looked), the Germans in WWII committed
a lot fewer troops to partisan suppression than you might think in 
the occupied countries - and a lot of these were either military 
police or pretty poor quality units anyhow. In fact, from a strictly
numeric perspective, the partisans didn't do all that much despite
all the allied rumblings about 'the resistance'. Now, this isn't true
in all cases I'll admit, but it is worthy of note. 

Also note that many groups collaborated with the Germans due to
sympathy to their cause or outlook and due to German pre-invasion
covert activity - rabble rousing, supporting dissident factions that
were pro-german, assassinations, etc. Don't assume this won't be
the case in an invasion of a contested world. Especially if two major
powers have land claims and colonies there.  

> >Plenty of wars are over simple hatred. In fact, probably the majority

> >of todays wars are, or have that as a major factor. Religious hatred,

> >class hatred, racial hatred, or a combination. I guess the Iraqi 
> >invasion of Kuwait was one of the few invasions recently was largely 
> >for (oil) resources.
> 
> Yeah.  Doubt it.  If you check, actually in most cases the ethnic or 
> religious issues (I will not dignify the 'class' nonsense with a 
> response) are actually just an aggravation of land or other resource 
> issues.

Have to concur with John here. Most wars (a few in the middle
east being exceptions) have been about power, land, money, or
resources - all of which are by some factor exchangable for the 
other. A lot of times hatreds are fanned by those in power to suit
their needs and to drive the war (by provocateurs), but you'll find 
that even the most severe religious dictatorships often have very 
secular concerns and act in a suprisingly rational (strictly from the 
perspective of the acquisition of resources/power) way.  

On a personal level, I don't want to be the poor gruntie in front of 
a horde of screaming fanatics who hate me, but in the larger picture, 
my commanding general probably realizes these fanatics have been 
whipped into a froth by someone for very political/economic/military 
secular ends....

Tom.