Your First Question. Sun Tzu the ancient Chinese war philosopher once said that war is a very important affair of the state, thus implying the primacy of policy over the use of force in statecraft. In any war, there exist three elements which comprise of a balance between the people, the military and the government, thus forming a "remarkable trinity" to quote Carl Von Clausewitz, that determines the nature of any war. The interactions of the tendencies of these components determine the success or failure of any military adventure in history. Let us take a historical case,for example, the Second Indochina War, between the US and NVA/VietCong. It is popularly believed that the US lost the War, but this apparent lost was due not to a tactical failure but a strategic one. The North Vietnamese were routed in every battle,even suffered severe casualties at the their ultimate engagement the "Tet Offensive" of 1965. The US lost because they did not understand the nature of the war, and the US Government lacked the moral will to fight. The North Vietnamese understood this tragic flaw and exploited it not in the battlefield, but through propaganda using the US media and buying TIME all the way to the Paris Peace Talks in the early Seventies. Now how does this historical analogy fit into the context of Cassamance, and the Senegalese failure to achieve a favourable solution during the 18 years of crisis. First, the nature of the government determines the outcome of any war- remember the "trinity"- It will suffice to mention the unpopularity and inefficiency of the Diouf Administration, their lack of a rigid policy to establish the rationality of the war effort and sensitizing the moral conviction of the Senegalese "people" through public diplomacy is all addd to the impedimenta to success. Yet the most critical flaw of the Senegalese Government, and you Halifa even mentioned it in your letter, is the wrong military strategy adopted by the Senegalese military. The Senegalese were fighting a COVENTIONAL WARFARE against a GUERRILLA force..., the same tragic mistake the US made in Vietnam, and the French in Algeria. You do not need a sword to kill a mosquito. Guerrilla war is a "People's War", it uses anything under the sun from terror to aggressive propaganda, buying TIME through peace talks in the name of "dialogue", "progressive rapproachement" to finally achieve "peaceful coexistence"- guerrilla euphemisms that have different connotations in the Marxist-Leninist political lexicon. I am not accusing any one of being a Marxist-Socialist but these terms, especially "Peaceful Coexistence" has Hegelian origins of the thesis versus antithesis conflict all the way to its Marxist derivative of dialectical materialism, class struggles where we the "progressives" (MFDC) shall finally overcome the "Oppressor" (the Senegalese Government) to bring peace! Guerrilla wars require a strategy of proactive propaganda or the "battle of hearts and minds", active search and destroy missions deep into the Jola heartland, to isolate, harass, demoralise the insurgency. This MFDC is a rebel and criminal organisation and the Senegalese Government should treat them as such. There should be no negotiations with them until their will to fight is finally exterminated. Yes I will strongly agree with your proposal for the Senegalese Government to establish a development plan for the region with the sole objective of supporting the counter-insurgency operations. These guerrillas are criminals and the Senegalese Government should treat them as such, so as to isolate them from the law abiding citizens of Cassamance. I will answer your second question in part two. Ebou Jallow ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------