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GUERILLA WARFARE
T. E. Lawrence
by A. E. John
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In 1927 the Encyclopedic Britannica (first published in 1929)
commissioned T.E. Lawrence
(Lawrence of Arabia) to write an article on guerrilla warfare.
The word, guerrilla, is the dimunitive of the Spanish word for war,
guerra.
Lawrence was a British officer who was assigned to work with the Arab Army to
stage a "Guerrilla War" against the Turks during World War I.
In his article he outlines the tactics used and the important factors
of their success.
Firstly - He notes that the Arab Army was very loosely organized with
the individual soldier's loyalty to his tribe and not to a nation or a people.
He felt the Arabs were fighting for freedom from the Turks and
for the spoils of war not for honor or protection of their homes and families.
Secondly - The officers selected targets that were easy to obtain and
cost the least.
Their main goal was to force the Turks to use as many troops
as possible defending positions that where of little strategic value
to the Arabs.
The Turks had 100,000 soldiers defending Mecca and Media in Saudi Arabia.
The Guerrillas constantly blow up bridges and stretches of the railroad
that supplied Turkish the army from Syria.
Thirdly - They depended on very actuate intelligence so that their raids
were effective with very few Arab causalities.
They also depended on the sympathies of the local population
not to give away their positions or plans.
Middle East before World War I
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Fourthly - The Arab Army was made up of small, very mobile units.
They used camels and used the desert as if it were the ocean.
Many of their tactics were similar to those used by pirates.
Hit quickly, inflict damage and run without engaging the enemy directly.
After each raid they would escape into the desert where
they could not be easily followed.
Lawrence summarized his strategy at the end of his article as follows,
"Granted mobility, security (in the form of denying targets to the enemy),
time, and doctrine (the idea to convert every subject to friendliness),
victory will rest with the insurgents, for the algebraical factors
are in the end decisive, and against them perfections of means and
spirit struggle quite in vain."
This sounds to me like what is going on in Iraq today except that the
guerrillas (insurgents) have selected casualties as the point
of concentration.
The Arabs in Lawrence's time were fighting for freedom from the Turks.
Today's fighters believe that they are fighting for freedom from
infidel imperialism.
Some are willing to be martyrs going to heaven, and all are testing
how many lives we are willing to sacrifice.
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Vol 4, No 6
