FDLP-Ecuador: COUNTER IMPERIALIST WAR WITH PEOPLE’S WAR!
We hereby share an unofficial translation of a statement by the Defense Front of the People’s Struggles in Ecuador.
For decades, US imperialism has constructed a narrative of military and political invincibility based on two assumptions: its technological and material superiority and an ideological industry that turns war into a falsely heroic narrative (Hollywood and its derivatives). But, viewed in the light of historical materialism, this myth is easily shattered: what defines a military campaign, and these campaigns aligned with a war, is whether or not it is just. The US and all imperialists promote unjust wars, and based on that fact, they already have history and success against them.
There are many historical events that attest to the defeats inflicted on Yankee imperialism by the masses and dignified peoples. There are many cases in which the United States had to retreat, biting the dust and with its tail between its legs. At the risk of omitting several other important examples, we will point out the following: Vietnam defeated Yankee imperialism militarily and politically, sealing its victory with the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. Afghanistan ended with the Taliban’s entry into Kabul on August 15, 2021; and the Korean War ended in an armistice on July 27, 1953, without strategic victory and with the peninsula divided.
In other scenarios, defeat was less “classical” and more political, but equally eloquent: in Lebanon, the 1983 coup accelerated the withdrawal of the Marines and left a mark of strategic failure; in Somalia, after the Mogadishu disaster (October 3 and 4, 1993), Washington withdrew its ambition for “pacification” under the weight of urban warfare and political cost; and in Cuba, the Bay of Pigs invasion (April 17-19, 1961) showed that military power does not guarantee political control when the people and the terrain deny the “quick coup.”
In the face of all these failures or defeats, the US has produced a series of writings, films, short films, and documentaries that have sought to “minimize” its defeats or establish that, in one way or another, it was victorious.
One myth they have tried to perpetuate is that their “special” units operate outside the law, as if they were exempt from the rules of war. This is also untrue.
When people talk about the Navy SEALs, they are often portrayed as a perfect machine: absolute precision, “surgical” operations, and guaranteed results. They paint a picture of supermen capable of doing things that would be nothing short of impossible for any other human being. Scoundrels! They should study the People’s War in Peru and what the best sons and daughters of the people are truly capable of. One need only recall the rescue of comrades from the Ayacucho prison led by a 19-year-old woman, Comrade Laura, Edith Lagos.
The objective reality is less cinematic. As with any military force, even elite units suffer failures, setbacks, and operations that went wrong for various reasons: poor intelligence, hostile weather and terrain, coordination errors, questionable decisions, unexpected resistance, and that inevitable friction that arises when moving from plan to actual combat. Nevertheless, we return to the principle, the objectives, the nature of war, which, in ideological terms, determines everything.
There are episodes that have been remembered precisely because they shattered the myth. During the invasion of Grenada in October 1983, a maritime raid ended in tragedy: four SEALs drowned.
In Panama, on December 20, 1989, during the operation to overthrow and capture Noriega, a group of SEALs attacked Paitilla Airport with the aim of disabling the presidential plane. The objective was achieved, but the price was high. As they say, it was a Pyrrhic victory, with many casualties. And in time, like it or not, that makes us happy.
In Afghanistan, the best-known strike was Operation Red Wings (Kunar province, June 2005). What began as a reconnaissance and capture mission ended in an ambush. The ambushers ended up ambushed themselves. Many of these criminals ended up where they belonged, six feet under. Of course, with a souvenir film that tries to bring them back to life.
Hostage rescues show, perhaps better than anything else, how fragile the line between “success” and “failure” can be. In Afghanistan in 2010, the attempt to rescue Linda Norgrove ended in her death during the operation, and it was later concluded that the fatal cause was linked to a grenade thrown by the assault team. In Yemen in 2014, an operation to rescue journalist Luke Somers also ended tragically when the raid was detected and the captors killed the hostages. In both cases, the problem arose because they are neither technical experts nor supermen, but individuals who, under the influence of narcotics (which they claim to be fighting against), make mistakes that belie their legendary reputation.
In Yemen, there was another episode that is often cited for its political impact: the Yakla assault on January 29, 2017. In this operation, combatants armed with simple AK-47s and wearing flip-flops killed several SEALs, who, in their clumsy retreat, killed 14 civilians, including nine children, in what they call “collateral damage.”
The Delta Force has participated in several criminal and treacherous “interventions” in various countries. The best-known example is Operation Eagle Claw (Iran), aborted at Desert One on the night of April 24-25, 1980, which ended in disaster and with several invading soldiers dead. Another operation that gained international notoriety was Mogadishu, Somalia; it became a symbol precisely because a force with less technological equipment, weaponry, etc., hurt them, cornered them like rats, and defeated them. Those who survived had to return to the US in coffins covered with little flags and with historical shame in their hands.
On that basis, it is advisable to read the triumphalist versions currently circulating about Venezuela with caution. A few days ago, in the US invasion of Venezuela and the kidnapping of its president, Maduro, the figures for the dead and wounded were already skewed by the information war. Certain media outlets spoke of “around two dozen” Venezuelan officers killed and that Cuba reported 32 of Maduro’s security forces dead. The Washington Post reported a US assessment of around 75 total deaths and “approximately seven” US casualties, emphasizing that there were no deaths on their side.
However, even leaving aside the dispute over numbers, there is a technical point that casts suspicion on any narrative of a “clean assault” against a defended position: US military doctrine itself recognizes that defense, due to its inherent advantages, is often the strongest form of combat. In simple terms: the urban environment and prepared defense tend to punish the attacker, and that is why reports promising “bloodless victory” are often, at best, incomplete and, at worst, propaganda.
Therefore, the fundamental question is not whether the United States has military capability, but whether it can impose its will without paying a price and without generating resistance. Historical experience shows that it cannot: there have been strategic defeats, retreats, fiascos, failed operations and, above all, peoples who have made it pay dearly for its audacity. When imperialism sells “surgical strikes” and “victories without casualties,” we must understand that the opposite is true; that they also had to pay their share of blood.
There is no doubt about that; we are certain of it. The Delta Force, the Yankee invaders, left Venezuela with Maduro and countless corpses stuffed into garbage bags. It is an undeniable fact, and hiding it is part of the information hoax, of the interventionist strategy of the US: to show themselves as invincible, as all-powerful. Only Kautsky and the reactionaries believe this; the peoples of the world know that military and even nuclear potential can be countered by popular war. The history of resistance of the oppressed peoples of the world confirms this: People’s War is everything!
IMPERIALISM IS A PAPER TIGER, A GIANT WITH FEET OF CLAY!
COUNTER IMPERIALIST WAR WITH PEOPLE’S WAR!
ORGANIZE, COMBAT, AND RESIST!
