War, War never Changes

 

    In our class discussion we saw the progression of urban defense tactics during times of unrest within the history of France and how a good understanding of the urban layout would allow for makeshift barricades that would create heavily fortified parts of town. Through resiliency, good coordination, and a few ingenious ideas the French people have been able to overcome numerous governing bodies. Can this still be an effective strategy in todays day in age? The simple and grim answer is no.

    The stark reality is that technology has gotten way too advanced. Some of you may be reading this and saying, “well Kyle what about the Ukrainian people? They seem to be putting up a good fight” and yes you would be partially correct. The war in Ukraine is the closest thing to the old French revolution(s) in the same sense of urban makeshift defenses and support from the United States, perhaps. But the sad truth is that technology has advanced to the point of unimaginable destruction. The progression of this started in World War II with the constant bombardment and bombing of urban areas (due to the threat of being such a densely populated area). Fast forward to today and we still see the destruction of entire cities, only in quicker time. The cities of Mariupol, Rubizhne [pictured above], and Lyman are great examples in the sense that no amount of barricades could have prevented the total destruction of their city, just like how the German fire bombings burnt parts of England to the ground. Is there hope for preventative tragedies to this scale of destruction or have we been doomed since 1914 when H.G. Wells first wrote about the idea of the Atomic bomb?

    Conversely, there has been hope with one of the biggest totalitarian nations of a new modern-day protest without the destruction. The Hong Kong protests in 2019-2020 were one of the best and well organized demonstrations in history. With the advancement in technology, they used the same set of tools to their advantage. Using social media platforms to warn about police activity so that large masses could be moved at high volumes so they can be in a new location before police would arrive on scene. They would have selective people with prepaid metro tickets to control the flow of people from on station to another. On top of this, they would get creative with counter measures. 

Some of their tactics included: home-made anti-tear gas PPE, the use of laser pointers to blur facial recognition cameras and drones, using umbrellas, hard hats, and garbage can lids as shields and personal barriers, and using traffic cones to contain and put out deployed tear gas canisters. They were using their collective knowledge to put on one of the most effective demonstrations in history all through utilizing their existing environments.