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That is, the terrorist action becomes a tool for political purposes. In the guerrilla struggle, military personnel and facilities are targeted in line with political goals, but in case of terrorist actions civilians are targeted intentionally to achieve the political aims. In essence, guerrilla warfare is not symbolic but rather devoted to a certain aim by contrast to terrorism where violence is a tool and symbol. Terrorists, on the other hand, do not limit their actions and terrorise civilians by putting fear in people’s hearts and even kill innocent foreigners in the country. In this sense, they respect the rights of innocent civilians by refraining from targeting them. Guerrilla forces principally fight in accordance with the law of war ( jus in bello). While the primary concern of guerrillas is enemy’s active military units, terrorists largely are concerned with non-military agents and target mostly civilians.
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Comparison of the Guerrilla Warfare and TerrorismĬontrary to terrorist groups, guerrillas usually work in open positions as armed units, try to hold and seize land, do not refrain from fighting enemy military force in battle and usually apply pressure to control or dominate territory and population. At this point, radical terrorism provides a great opportunity for these unqualified people to gain glory, protect their honour and thus achieve status. People, with low social status, display aggressive behaviour patterns and violent acts to earn respect, attract attention and realise themselves. In short, terrorism mercilessly destroys social values on the pretext of protecting superior values. According to Bruce Hoffman Terrorism is defined “as violent actions carried out by a subnational group or non-state actors, operating with the aim of generating a psychological effect on the society rather than directly targeting determined victims, acting with political purpose and motivational factor”. The latter is a cruel act of violence that borrows and hides behind captive thoughts, thus seeking to legitimise itself in the face of targeted people and eventually capture political power. In fact, there is no original idea or an absolute definition of terrorism. On the other hand, the lexical meaning of “terrorism” comes from Latin linguistic family and means “trembling with fear” or “causing to tremble.” According to the French Petit Robert vocabulary, terror signifies “a common fear that a group of people create in order to break the resistance of the people”. To this end, “provocation” is often used to uproot the people against the enemy. Combatants are educated like soldiers, directed by a commander, wear a distinctive uniform to show that they are guerrillas, and try to get support from the populace by giving the impression that they are fighting for them. They often avoid open battle and aim to harass and weaken the enemy’s strength, herewith forcing the enemy to withdraw from the contest. Guerrilla tactics include ambush, sabotage, hit and run technique. Guerrillas compose of a certain number of militant groups, acting as a military unit and thus take the name of paramilitary forces or combatants. In other words, lightly armed small forces mostly utilise asymmetrical warfare techniques against belligerent state’s conventional army. These small, mobilised and revolutionary forces can only withstand the stronger and larger forces through guerrilla warfare. The term guerrilla, has been used to refer “little war” in Spanish.