I disagree with you on this point from two angles.
I do believe that our military does act as a
deterrent, but substantiation of my point would probably
constitute violation of the Official Secrets Act. Yes, I know
it sounds like a cop-out, but I'm not about to buy myself a whole
lot of grief on account of an Internet discussion. Suffice to
say that because of geographic constraints, Singapore does not have
much defensive depth and the game plan accounts for this.
As for resistance making the invader more vicious, well,
Singaporeans left the fighting to the British in WW2, and to be
frank I can't see any way to view the Japanese as having gone any
easier on the population as non-combatants during the
invasion. IMHO, that theory simply does not hold water, and
to be blunt, I propose that it's better to die on one's feet than
live on one's knees.
well, i agree that our military is only a deterrent. nothing
more.
you can easily scare off potential aggressor with all those high
tech toys. but in an actual war, you think those toys are going to
keep functioning? eventually we will run out of ammo, parts etc.
look at idon and m'sia. they have the raw material to manufacture
ammo, but not singapore. we have to purchase all our equipment from
abroad, directly or indirectly.
and to the hell with the geneva convention. to date, i haven
seen any country which fully abide by the convention. hospitals and
schools are still bombed.
imagine if they "accidentally" take out one or two hospital,
with our sluggish efficiency in the healthcare sector, medical
treatment will be horrible.
they also just need to knock out a few strategic chokepoints on
the roads and railway. with so many underground tunnels twisting
under our roads, it is impossible to repair a road in a matter of
days. look at the nicoll highway incident. it took months to
rebuild the road, even in time of peace. all it takes is a few
bombing here and there to destroy the transport network. it is no
longer the they-bomb-a-hole-we-fill-it-up-with-dirt kind of
situation you see in less developed countries.
and then it will seriously affect troop mobilization. how fast
can your troop be mobilize when the mrt and bus services are not
working? how fast can you move your troops around when there are
enormous craters at important crossroads, effectively cutting off
traffic?
how long can you go without food and water? (our food is also
imported. and i doubt that merchants would want to sail into a port
directly threatened by war)
in other words, beyond its superficial capabilities, the saf is
just a paper tiger.
