assets and artillery included. This facili-
tates tactical success. However, it does
not always have an impact on the final
result. Thus, "battles are won in a lost
war".
Suffice it to say, the Americans with-
drew their forces from Vietnam leav-
ing the burden of fighting to the South
Vietnamese forces that were quickly
defeated by the communist forces. A
similar scenario involving a different
set of actors also brought the Russian
intervention in Afghanistan to an end.
Meanwhile, when the US forces with-
drew from Iraq for the first time, back
in 2011, an ISIS offensive began that
was suppressed, ultimately, thanks to a
US-led intervention. There is no reason
to believe that similar scenarios would
not occur in the future. The fact is that
irregular warfare is not a golden bullet
that always leads to victories. Unfortu-
nately, our history also provides us with
a number of examples – the January
Uprising or other lost uprisings and un-
derground resistance structures. Oth-
ers also lost their war, including the Che
Guevara's forces in Bolivia or the Greek
communists, just after the WW2. The
ANALYSIS
