Re: Planetary defenses

You wrote: 

>> Guerilla operations are fine IF you are supported by the outside.  
No >> guerilla war in history has ever won without outside (other 
nations) >> help.
>>
>
>Not true at all.There have been successful internally run guerilla 
movements. >One of the most recent examples would be Eritrea. They 
fought a 30 year struggle >against Ethiopia to win their independence 
with virtually no outside help. >Everything theyy got and everything 
they learned came from the enemy. The >Ethipoians had a blank check 
from the Soviets as far as equipment as well as >numerous advisors.

That's one counter-example.  There aren't any others.  One exception in 
history.  And as I've put it in the past, in military history we can 
find examples of everything except one side loosing due to meteors 
flattening the command staff.  Do we want me to start listing sucessful 
counter-insurgencies?  I'll even restrict to the past 2 centuries.

Besides, the stuff I've read about the Eritreans mentioned a world-wide 
support network of ex-pat Eritreans who funnelled money back home and 
more importantly, got education and training on the outside then took 
their skills back home.

Plus the Ethiopian were. . . what's a polite way to put it, less than 
stellarly competent?  Assuming a military organization that can find 
it's arse with a flashlight and both hands the situation looks a bit 
different.

And last but not least, let's not forget the rather substantial 
Ethiopian contribution--the Ethiopians were stuck trying to put down an 
insurgency in their own country and occupy Eritrea.

John M. Atkinson