Talk:Guard Force (Rhodesia)

A fact from Guard Force (Rhodesia) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 21 October 2021 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows: Did you know... that the Rhodesian Guard Force was often implicated in criminal activity against the villagers it was meant to protect? A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2021/October. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Guard Force.

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Hi, I appreciate you are trying to improve this article. However you need to do so in accordance with our policies. One of the key tenets of the encyclopaedia is WP:Verifiability, I suggest you read this policy before making any further contributions. Essentially all content must come from previously published information. You cannot include WP:Original research, which includes your "personal experience on the ground" as a member of Guard Force. Some of you changes are not supported by the source, for example:

• You changed "The Guard Force was often implicated in criminal acts against the villagers they were meant to protect" to "... was sometimes implicated...". The source (Moorcraft 2010, p58) states "Guard Force details often committed crimes against the populations they were charged with protecting"
• You changed "The Guard Force was modelled on the predominantly black Kikuyu Home Guard who had served to guard local areas in Kenya during the 1950s Mau Mau Uprising." to "The Guard Force was modelled on units used to defend protected villages in the Malayan Emergency, in which Rhodesian Army units had served", the source states that the villages were "protected by the Guard Force , modelled on the Kenyan Emergency Kikuyu Guard"
• You provide no source for your assertion that "2nd Battalion was formed from 2 Group and also took on line-of-rail duties in 1979. 3rd Battalion was formed in 1979 and took on a fully infantry role comparable with the Army."
• You add "Although doomed by its role to be almost always on the defensive, Guard Force was reasonably effective against a poorly trained opponent. No position it was assigned to protect was ever over run by the guerrillas. Its existence made the Protected Village scheme possible, its men allowed numerous vulnerable white commercial farmers to stay on the land, it made attacking the line-of-rail more of a challenge and no more attacks were made on the urban targets it was assigned to protect after its deployment." without any source to back it up
• You remove "he inhabitants of the villages endured poor living conditions and an often tyrannical rule by the Guard Force, they often welcomed their "liberation" by the guerillas" which is backed up by the source (Weitzer 1990 p93) "Yet most PVs evidenced miserable living conditions and tyrannical control by members of the Guard Force . Not surprisingly , villagers came to look on the guerrillas as their liberators from these prison camps"
• You add: "Throughout its history basic training was extended and new specialist courses begun. Once its full strength had been reached in 1978, retraining was begun and some poorer performers discharged at the end of their three year contracts. Those who extended their contracts got a brown and red shoulder flash to pin on their uniforms." without a source

Please find WP:Reliable sources for any information you want to add and include this source when you add it. Unsourced material cannot be accepted, please do not continue to add it- Dumelow (talk) 05:55, 18 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

In response to "So what counts as a source, as far as you are concerned? Would an internet site count?". Our policy on sources is set out at Wikipedia:Reliable sources. Some internet sites may meet the definition of reliable but note that, in general, they should not be self-published. See Wikipedia:Verifiability#Self-published_sources - Dumelow (talk) 18:15, 20 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

In response to "I notice that other articles have (citation needed) where a published source is lacking. Would you have any objection to me (or you) putting that next to my edits? Thus information would not be suppressed but a due health warning would be given to readers". Citation needed tags should not be used in this manner, they are there to highlight information that is at risk of removal due to being uncited, not to allow addition of information without citation. Our policy for addition of material is often summarised as "verifiability, not truth", while I appreciate this might be difficult given your personal experience, we can only report what is stated in reliable sources - Dumelow (talk) 15:25, 22 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]