Can an enemy win by losing?


What would you think of a story were a militarily advanced industrial society, MAIS, is pitted against a non-industrialized cult enemy? Let us call them The Cult. The Cult’s generals have identified the MAIS’s military might as their weakness.

The Cult’s motivation is to kill anyone who is not a member of the cult.They believe that they can win a war against the MAIS by losing. The Cult fights from the back of pickup trucks. While the MAIS fights back using budget busting machines and smart bullets that cost millions of dollars each.  The MAIS puts its fighters in uniforms that identity them as targets. The Cult’s warriors disappear into the civilian population when pursued. When the MAIS shuts The Cult down in one place, they just move to another place. The MAIS fighters have rules of engagement, and they observe civilized rules of war. The Cult believes in savagery and brutality.

The Cult’s strategy is to keep the MAIS winning until they have no bullets left—their will to fight gone and their economy exhausted. How do they accomplish their strategy to keep the MAIS fighting?  Tactically, The Cult commits acts so abhorrent to civilized mores that the MAIS is compelled to attack, and attack and attack.

What do you think?  Does this seem believable? Does it make a good story?

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