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Emperor Barbarossa
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Joined: 15-Jul-2005 Location: Pittsburgh, USA Online Status: Offline Posts: 2882 |
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Topic: PIRA vs. TalibanPosted: 30-May-2009 at 19:20 |
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I do not know how many people on AllEmpires watch Deadliest Warrior on Spike, but next week's contestants are the Provisional IRA versus the Taliban. The show is quasi-historical, but it can get inaccurate at times and overreaching in its assumptions (it assumes that the average warrior carried a supply-depot worth of weapons)
. Personally, I am going with the Taliban because they were effective guerilla warriors (and still can be), whereas it seems the PIRA is better at sneaking around and bombing places than actual guerilla warfare (the PIRA made no real gains in Ireland from the 1960s to the 1990s).
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Parnell
Chieftain
Joined: 04-Apr-2007 Location: Ireland Online Status: Offline Posts: 1367 |
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Posted: 30-May-2009 at 20:26 |
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The PIRA were great at bombing hotels full of musicians and young people, and great at shooting mothers of 10-13 children for giving a dying British soldier some water after he had been shot by masked gunmen.
They were pretty poor at doing ambushes of military targets; most they ever managed was a couple of potshots at soldiers from far away, occasionally killing a couple. They were not guerrila warriors in our understanding of the word; they lacked freedom to roam because one sympathetic communities were often adjacent to unsympathetic ones. They had very little popular support, other than a few loudmouths in pubs after several pints. |
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"Neither apathy nor antipathy can ever bring out the truth of history" Eoin Mac Neill.
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Emperor Barbarossa
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Joined: 15-Jul-2005 Location: Pittsburgh, USA Online Status: Offline Posts: 2882 |
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Posted: 30-May-2009 at 22:04 |
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I completely agree with you, Parnell. The PIRA seems more like a bunch of wussies whose main target was innocent civilians (though the Taliban is also a terrorist organization, they proved that they could fight by kicking the Russians out of Afghanistan). The PIRA, unlike Collin's IRA in the 1920's, never really effectively fought British army units in any real battle. Rather, they were just a nuisance since they bombed hotels and buses. I do not even know why they are having the episode, since it seems pretty clear cut.
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malizai_
Sultan
Alcinous Joined: 05-Feb-2006 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 2256 |
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Posted: 31-May-2009 at 02:34 |
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Taliban the organization did not exist during the Soviet war. The are a product of the post Soviet era.
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Emperor Barbarossa
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Joined: 15-Jul-2005 Location: Pittsburgh, USA Online Status: Offline Posts: 2882 |
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Posted: 31-May-2009 at 03:12 |
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Sorry, I was thinking of the mujahideen connected with Osama bin Laden (you are correct, there was no Taliban until after the war). But ,anyways, at least the Taliban can wage a guerilla war, unlike the PIRA. They are actually a threat to NATO forces in Afghanistan, and can do more than bus bombings.
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malizai_
Sultan
Alcinous Joined: 05-Feb-2006 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 2256 |
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Posted: 31-May-2009 at 03:49 |
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No need to apologize EB, some of those Talibs are indeed sons of the Pashtun mujahideen. Who in the discriptive sense of the word would equally be considered mujahideen. They have only learned to wage guerilla war in response to NATO presence and indeed are a very cunning foe. Their long war strategy is evident as highlighted in Rudyard Kipling's 'Arithmetic on the frontier'.
A great and glorious thing it is
To learn, for seven years or so, The Lord knows what of that and this, Ere reckoned fit to face the foe-- The flying bullet down the Pass, That whistles clear: "All flesh is grass." Three hundred pounds per annum spent A scrimmage in a Border Station-- No proposition Euclid wrote, One sword-knot stolen from the camp With home-bred hordes the hillsides teem, The "captives of our bow and spear"
The PIRA are more comparable to ETA than Taliban as the nature of their campaign is primarily urban. |
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es_bih
Immortal Guard
Beglerbeg Joined: 20-Dec-2006 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 3426 |
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Posted: 31-May-2009 at 04:47 |
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Long time no see. Can't stand to watch another one of those Spike shows though. Too cheesy. |
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es_bih
Immortal Guard
Beglerbeg Joined: 20-Dec-2006 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 3426 |
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Posted: 31-May-2009 at 04:50 |
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I think you're confusing Taliban and Al-Queada. The Taliban as we know it, in Afghanistan was a military movement, and a state politic body that was driven out of power, and had terrorists as guests. The Taliban offshoot movement in Pakistan could be considered a terrorist movement, but that would be neither there or here. |
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Sparten
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Totalitarian Iconoclast Joined: 18-Mar-2006 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 5012 |
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Posted: 31-May-2009 at 12:44 |
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The PIRA were effectivly an urban insurgency, as opposed to the Talibs who use the mountains. The Talibans worst defeats (and those of their predessessors) have come in urban areas, Jalalabad, Mazar-e-Sharif and now Swat.
No comparison.
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The Germans also take vacations in Paris; especially during the periods they call "blitzkrieg".
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Emperor Barbarossa
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Joined: 15-Jul-2005 Location: Pittsburgh, USA Online Status: Offline Posts: 2882 |
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Posted: 31-May-2009 at 13:55 |
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Nice to see you again. I am not a big Spike fan (first show I have watched on the network, and it is a little corny). I personally am still angry at their one episode in which a Viking is defeated by a Samurai because of the kanabo, a scantly used samurai club. It was more of a mythological weapon than an actual military mainstay. I see your point about the Taliban (I always thought they were the actual government's name and Al-Qaeda was the terrorist movement), but Spike has not made this distinction (so I am guessing they mean Al-Qaeda when saying Taliban). |
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Emperor Barbarossa
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Joined: 15-Jul-2005 Location: Pittsburgh, USA Online Status: Offline Posts: 2882 |
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Posted: 01-Jun-2009 at 11:51 |
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It was a close one. IRA wins by a little less than 52%. However, this was a five on five battle, and the experts even said that if it was army versus army, the taliban would have won.
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