Answer: how did David beat goliath? Or was that a rhetorical question? ??
Kam min fi atin qalleelin ghalabat fi atin thatheerin bi idhn Allah?
For a long time sniper tactics have been considered by many, even in the military, to be akin to a kind of state designated “murder” rather than a legitimate combat strategy. Only in recent years has sniping achieved a certain level of recognition. Centuries of warfare have passed in which snipers were happily recruited for their skills, and then quickly swept under the rug and forgotten once conflict was over. Daniel Morgan and his crack-shot riflemen were instrumental in America's revolutionary victory over the British. U.S. sharpshooters rained hell down on German troops from over 900 yards during WWI. Snipers have dominated the battlefield in every modern conflagration. Yet, regimented sniping schools were not standardized in the U.S. Army until 1987. All previous schools were abandoned within a few years of their establishment.
Why did it take so long for the sniper to be recognized as essential to victory? Perhaps because snipers are TOO effective, to the point that they become frightening to the establishment.
During the Finnish “Winter War” against the Soviet Union in which they were vastly outnumbered and outgunned, guerrilla tactics, which they called “Motti tactics”, were used to excellent effect. The Finnish devastated the Soviets using hit and run attacks, homemade and improvised weapons, and snipers. The most famous of these snipers was Simo Hayha.
Simo was a common farmer with a diminutive stature of only 5 feet 3 inches tall. His shooting prowess was honed as a hunter in the wilderness of Finland. Simo is credited with over 505 (official) kills, including several teams of Soviet counter-snipers sent specifically to eliminate him. These kills were made during less than 100 days of combat, meaning Hayha engaged and destroyed 5 targets per day by himself. Known as the “White Death”, Simo would finally be removed from the battlefield by a lucky shot from an explosive tipped rifle round to the face while holding off a Soviet advance; he would wake up later in a Finnish hospital at the very end of the war and die of old age in the year 2002.
Simo Hayha proved once and for all the effectiveness of a single shooter in the face of a more powerful opponent. This kind of attrition warfare stopped the more technologically advanced Russians in their tracks, and ended their pursuit of total invasion. The poorly armed Finish prevailed despite all odds.
Sniper training turns a simple rifleman into a weapon of long range mass destruction, which is probably the reason why most governments around the globe have been reluctant until recently to educate more than a handful of soldiers on sniping methods. Hypothetically, a team of snipers could be dangerous enough to topple the political leadership (or oligarchy) of any given nation with nothing more than a few finely tuned rifles and a couple boxes of high caliber rounds.
Governments, fearful of being outdone by such low-tech adversaries, have gone to great lengths in an attempt to negate the sniper as a threat. Night vision, thermal vision, sound detection equipment, gas attacks, white phosphorous attacks, even large scale artillery barrages and laser guided missiles have not been able to stop snipers from remaining as a primary combat tool. Snipers always find a way around existing defenses, no matter how high tech.
This is why sniper techniques are one of the ultimate strategies for self defense of the common citizenry usually disarmed of military grade weaponry.
http://alt-market.com/articles/1970-sniper-basics-for-the-shtf-survivalist
You have placed a very intelligent question here “What does the strength or power in archery means” in this hadith of Prophet’s - Narrated Uqbah Ibn Amir I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) say - and he was delivering a sermon from the pulpit: Prepare to meet them with as much strength as you can afford. Beware, strength consists in archery. Beware, strength consists in archery. Beware, strength consists in archery. [Muslim]
Prophet said:
1) Narrated Uqbah ibn Amir I heard the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) say: Allah, Most High, will cause three persons to enter Paradise for one arrow: the maker when he has a good motive in making it, the one who shoots it, and the one who hands it; so shoot and ride, but your shooting is dearer to me than your riding. Everything with which a man amuses himself is vain except three (things): a man's training of his horse, his playing with his wife, and his shooting with his bow and arrow. If anyone abandons archery after becoming an adept through distaste for it, it is a blessing he has abandoned; or he said: for which he has been ungrateful. (Dawood; Tirmidih)
2) Narrated Salama bin Al Akwa The Prophet passed by some persons of the tribe of Aslam practicing archery (i.e. the throwing of arrows). Allah's Apostle said, "O offspring of Ishmael! Practice archery (i.e. arrow throwing) as your father was a great archer (i.e. arrow-thrower). I am with (on the side of) the son of so-and-so." Hearing that, one of the two teams stopped throwing. Allah's Apostle asked them, "Why are you not throwing?" They replied, "O Allah's Apostle! How shall we throw when you are with the opposite team?" He said, "Throw, for I am with you all." (Bukhari)
3) Narrated Uqbah ibn Amir Fuqaym al-Lakhmi said to Uqbah ibn Amir: You frequent between these two targets and you are and old man, so you will be finding it very hard. Uqbah said: But for a thing I heard from the Prophet (peace be upon him), I would not strain myself. Harith (one of the narrators in the chain of transmitters) said: I asked Ibn Shamasah: What was that? He said that he (the Prophet) said: Who learnt archery and then gave it up is not from us, or he has been guilty of disobedience (to Allah's Apostle). [Muslim]
4) Narrated Uqbah Ibn Amir I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) say - and he was delivering a sermon from the pulpit: Prepare to meet them with as much strength as you can afford. Beware, strength consists in archery. Beware, strength consists in archery. Beware, strength consists in archery. [Muslim]
5) Sad ibn Abi Waqqas is also known as the first companion to have shot an arrow in defence of Islam. And the Prophet once prayed for him: "O Lord, direct his shooting and respond to his prayer."
6) Umar used to issue instructions laying stress on the teaching of four things to the soldiers, namely: horse-racing; archery; walking barefoot, and swimming.
http://misconceptions-clarified.blogspot.com/2013/02/prophet-said-beware-strength-consists.html?m=1
Crossbows are silent and fast too.
