Gadhafi’s victories is a matter of the Rebel’s non-existing military strategy

There is so much in this article from the Associated Press writers Ryan Lucas and Diaa Hadid titled Scoring victories, Gadhafi tells rebels: surrender that trying to collapse it into a 350 word rant is not easy so I wanted to focus on just a tiny part of it.

The article reported many good things but one thing stood out as I read it and that was “the pro-Gadhafi forces surprised rebels with attacks on two sides of the city of Ajdabiya, and the opposition was outgunned as troops entered the city in tanks and personnel carriers.”  Now knowing that the bulk of the fighters are regular citizens without any military training at all but taking into consideration the military members who have defected to help their countrymen win back their country from a dictator, I would have thought that some first year issues would have been appropriately addressed by now.  The number one of them being never assuming anything in battle and preparing your troops as if you were your opposition.  The key word in all of this is the words “surprised”.

After taking a city, it would have been a first to insure that your achievement was secure and guards or watch towers were manned and operational to avoid any surprises.   Direct access to your stronghold should be under constant surveillance and an early warning system should be installed.  This could be by people ringing a bell, on the radio or any other quick means of communication available.  I can only surmise that since this is the second time that the rebels were surprised, they have yet to institute this.  I would have thought that enough military defectors would have insured this already unless there were less of those military members who defected or their lack of military experience is more acute than one would have originally thought.

Regardless, if Gadhafi is using more mercenaries than he is real troops then vanquishing them would be only a matter of making the money that they are getting not worth the risk that they are taking.  Instead of killing those fighting against you, a good interrogator can get them to help you more than hurt you.  A good interrogator is not one who uses torture because that only gets you the answers you want and not the answers you need.  A good interrogator can also get you something that torture never could and that is complete and reliable cooperation which can be key in any battle regardless of who’s fighting it.  Protect that which you win in battle and preserve that which you gain but never ever think that the opposition will quit and surrender.