Deathlyphil said:
That's completely true, and I meant mention that. Guerrilla warfare is a hideous thing, one I doubt we will find a way to stop easily. "Traditional" warfare has been dead for quite some time now, so all these "100v100" arguments are largely theoretical.
You'll never get rid of it entirely, but there is an easy, but controversial, way of dealing with it: stop going to war with false pretenses.
Most wars since WWII have been strictly about financial interests, covered in pretenses of liberation. "We" (Over developed Western forces... although this We is generally the US) go in pretending to be the good guys saving people, when the sole reason we're there is to conquer and pillage. As "good guys" we can't really afford to take any action against anyone not clearly wearing a "bad guy mask", so to speak. We end up in countries that don't want us there to begin with, fighting a "politically correct war" as a cover up.
Wanna get rid of guerrila wars? Only go to war when you absolutely have to and accept it for what it is: A war. Start seriously considering if it's absolutely necessary to go to war with a country before attacking, cause that way, when you do, the "by all means necessary" rule applies, and guerrila warfare is far less effective.
"Why are we going into this country?"
"Cause they got oil."
"Are we ready to accept that we're taking over a country?"
"No."
"Then fuck off."
"What about this one?"
"They're hiding terrorists".
"We're sure? We got undeniable evidence that they're hiding terrorists?"
"Yes. Right here."
"Ok. And their government refuses to work with us in any fashion?"
"Yes."
"Their people won't cooperate either?"
"Nop."
"There's no other option?"
"Nop."
"Then fuck'em. They're helping our enemy, they're an enemy. Level the fucking place."