Fighting to the Bitter End!

By John Farnam

Japanese imperial army soldier Hiroo Onoda : This picture taken on March 11, 1974 shows former Japanese imperial army soldier Hiroo Onoda, center, walking from the jungle where he had hidden since World War II, on Lubang island in the Philippines.
Japanese imperial army soldier Hiroo Onoda : This picture taken on March 11, 1974 shows former Japanese imperial army soldier Hiroo Onoda, center, walking from the jungle where he had hidden since World War II, on Lubang island in the Philippines.
Defense Training International, Inc
Defense Training International, Inc

Ft Collins, CO –-(Ammoland.com)- “Poker Rules are strict, but simple:

Poker asks, nay, commands all its adherents to cut the BS and embrace reality. It will toy with the deluded (those who have everything ‘figured out’ ) with the playful cruelty of a cat toying with a mouse. So, bring all your convictions and credentials, your anger and insecurities, your pride, vanity, and self-righteousness to the poker table, and Poker Gods will tease you, and mock you, and insult you, and exhaust you, and fill you with false hope, and prove you wrong again and again, and send you to the ATM more than a few times, before finally dismissing you, broke and bitter, at 5:00am.” ~ Katya G Cohen

“Bitterenders:”

What we call the “Second Anglo-Boer War” in South Africa saw the British Military pitted against indigenous Boer (Dutch) settlers. It started in the fall of 1899 and ended, at least officially, in May of 1902.

Dutch settlers called themselves “Afrikaners.

An earlier, and briefer, armed struggle between the same two antagonists, and for largely the same reasons (the “‘First’ Anglo-Boer War, or the “ Transvaal Rebellion”) lasted less than four months in early 1881, and ended, like most armed conflicts, in a hopelessly unworkable “truce.”

As noted above, armed hostilities predictably broke-out anew twenty years later.

The British Army’s widespread use, during the Second Boer War, of a “ scorched-earth” policy of destroying farms, livestock, and herding Afrikaner non-combatants (women and children) into concentration camps and then deliberately starving them to death understandably led to long-lasting enmity between British and Dutch South Africans. When I first starting going to South Africa in 1998, my British and Dutch friends were still, even then, barely on speaking terms.

While the Second Boer War “officially” ended on 31 May 1902, with the Treaty of Vereeniging, and in 1910, with the emergence of the ostensibly united “Union of South Africa,” deep-seated resentment persisted among Afrikaners, particularly “Bitterenders,” who kept on fighting the British after the Truce was signed, some for years afterward.

Smouldering Afrikaner Bitterenders revolted anew as late as 1914 (just as WW1 was starting) in the short-lived “Maritz Rebellion.” In view of hostilities rapidly erupting in Europe, the British had scant patience with armed insurrections in remote corners of the world. The Maritz Rebellion was quickly, and decisively, put down.

Nearly simultaneously (1916), a similar revolt, this time in Ireland (the Easter Rising), met with a similar lack of humor on the part of the British! It was also ruthlessly put down, with many casualties among non-combatants.

The “untold story” of most wars is that bitterness and active fighting almost never ends while the ink is still wet on whatever “treaty” ostensibly ends hostilities. Typically, “Bitterenders” carry the fight on, albeit hopelessly, but sometimes for years.

A small garrison of German troops, manning a weather station on remote Bear Island in the Barents Sea, and out of radio contact for months, peacefully gave themselves up to a startled group of Norwegian seal hunters on 4 Sept 1945, 119 days after VE Day.

As late as April of 1947, pitiful remnants of the once-powerful Japanese garrison on the Pacific island of Peleliu (invaded and conquered by US Marines, with hideous casualties on both sides, in November of 1944), unexpectedly attacked a US Marine patrol. Attackers (thirty-three in all, starving, disease-ridden, and mostly naked) were finally persuaded to surrender, but only after a Japanese admiral was brought in to talk with their contentious commander, Lt Ei Yamaguchi, and ultimately convince him that the War had long-since ended.

In April of 1980, on the Philippine island of Mindoro, Captain Fumio Nakahira, of the Imperial Japanese Army was discovered in his remote mountain hide-out, ageing and in poor health. He finally surrendered, thirty-five years after the end of the War in the Pacific.

Contrary to adolescent expectations of self-righteous politicians (most of whom never wore their Country’s uniform, nor ever fired a shot in anger), wars cannot be “turned on,” proceed predictably, then “turned off,” all on an arbitrary time-table. Once started, wars take-on an unconfined personality all their own, with unforeseeable implications, few of which will submit to naive wishes of original participants.

“Belief in the a short, decisive war is the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions.” ~ Robert Lynd

/John

About John Farnam & Defense Training International, Inc
As a defensive weapons and tactics instructor John Farnam will urge you, based on your own beliefs, to make up your mind in advance as to what you would do when faced with an imminent and unlawful lethal threat. You should, of course, also decide what preparations you should make in advance, if any. Defense Training International wants to make sure that their students fully understand the physical, legal, psychological, and societal consequences of their actions or inactions.

It is our duty to make you aware of certain unpleasant physical realities intrinsic to the Planet Earth. Mr Farnam is happy to be your counselor and advisor. Visit: www.defense-training.com

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Terry

No, Jim This has been the resurgence of the first 1400 years of islamics in a war of conquests over the western/civilization. Which first ended after the Cursades put down the first part of this war. All one needs do, is read the koran/quran and history. The Cursades were not a western aggression for conquest of the middle east but the answer to 1400 years of islamic conquest of the west. Their book teaches, them to act peaceful till they think they can overcome them make war. Isis and the rest are actually abiding by the quran openly. The muslim… Read more »

Wild Bill

The DHS discovered malware that takes over and disables electric grids already inserted in the three American electric grids. I hope that they are taking steps to remove it, check for other malware, and make sure that it never happens again. A lot of bad things could have happened in this country w/o electricity.

jim

The feckless pursuit of the “war on Terror” (whatever that means) which I see to include the action in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan, is what?, more than 20 years old? And all that has been done in to further incite a growing opposition.

Wild Bill

@jh45gun, It does not have to be feckless or incite opposition.

John

A good condensed ‘history lesson for the day’
Thanks!