Dear Editor,
The world is replete with examples of how not to fight an insurgency without resorting to genocide and environmental destruction. The world has witnessed the US response to Al-Qaeda and Israel’s response to the Palestinians and most rational observers have concluded that using a big stick without a corresponding counter to the message and appeal of the insurgency is a failure – the only victim was the environment which included the poor and dispossessed.
Today in Guyana this scenario is being played out again out of the ‘blind’ desire for an eye for an eye. I was very shocked to see that the authorities have seen it fit to denude the landscape of trees and farms to remove cover for the insurgents.
Our military planners have failed to recall that the mighty Americans tried Agent Orange in Vietnam to remove the leaf cover so that they can better spot the Vietcong. The result was disastrous for the environment and the health of US troops. The Israelis on the other hand bulldozed Palestinian homes and olive groves to no avail.
Both the preceding actions failed to stop insurgent attacks but they succeeded in collective punishment of an entire people; alienating them in the process; and improving the conditions for recruitment by the insurgents. The authorities need to learn from the mistakes of the better equipped US and Israeli armies and to cease this knee-jerk reaction..
How can they believe that this approach will work here? I wonder when they are going to bulldoze houses and build walls around Buxton. Insurgents have always used the cover of people to achieve their ends, not trees. The authorities have to win the minds and hearts of the people not crush their spirit. Like Freddy said go read Robert Taber’s War of the Flea (which I bought in Guyana decades ago at GNTC’s bookstore).
Yours faithfully,
Derek A Braithwaite
