[golergka]

> But in any scenario where militia were up against organized force, I would think they should try to blend into the population.

It's very effective indeed, if you disregard all problems with international law and basic human morals. It's a tactic that have been very successful for Hamas in recent years, for example. Fighting in civilian clothing means that (1) your adversaries will kill much more civilians, honestly mistaking them for you and (2) all your losses can be easily counted as "civilians" by even slightly biased observers. Next step in effectivety is just keeping a couple of children around you in a firefight.

Idealist militants, on the other hand, who are concerned with well-being of civilians they are fighting against always assume some form of uniform, because among other things, it helps to keep at least some rules of engagement in place and protect innocents to some extent.

[gaius]

Hence the orange jumpsuits of the Rebel Alliance.

[Aloha]

A quote comes to mind - "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." or in more polite terms - "One man's hero is another man's villain."

In war, what is right, or what is wrong on a decision by decision question, is often overshadowed by the meta moral questions of the broader context.

[GFK_of_xmaspast]

"International law" is one of the things that people like that really hate, c.f. all those people getting mad about "agenda 21".

[davidw]

> Idealist militants, on the other hand, who are concerned with well-being of civilians they are fighting

Going beyond the contradiction in that sentence, there appear to be a lot of quite diverse people in some of these groups, some of whom might care deeply about the well-being of others, and others who are simply spoiling for a fight. Some people in this latest event in Oregon were very much focused on intimidating locals who happened to work for the federal government in some capacity, or who happened to be on the 'wrong side'.