Domain

Explanation

Guerrilla? U mean those big monkeys in the trees?

• Mind U
• Those big muscular monkeys that would crush you if you continue talking trash are "gorillas"
• The word "guerrilla" has the dictionary meanings of

1. An irregular mode of carrying on war, by the constant attacks of independent bands, adopted in the north of Spain during the Peninsular war.

2. One who carries on, or assists in carrying on, irregular warfare; especially, a member of an independent band engaged in predatory excursions in war time. &hand; The term guerrilla is the diminutive of the Spanish word guerra, war, and means petty war, that is, war carried on by detached parties; generally in the mountains. . . . A guerrilla party means, an irregular band of armed men, carrying on an irregular war, not being able, according to their character as a guerrilla party, to carry on what the law terms a regular war. F. Lieder.

• Hence, a guerrilla is a noun for an organization or an individual or both that uses military force to achieve its goals
• As such, a guerrilla would necessarily be engaged in warfare, terrorism, sabotage, intimidation, insurgence, arms, revolutionary recruitment and basically, violence of any sort
• Hence, India’s Ghandi who encourages revolt by non-violent uncooperative behaviour cannot be considered a guerrilla – he never liked war, even though he would be disappointed to know of the state of affairs that India & Pakistan (which were formed partly by his behaviour) in modern times

What makes a guerrilla?

• A typical guerrilla (as in the statistical & observed normal distribution) has the following attributes:

1. Cause. A goal that united the guerrillas and gave them something to die for. It may be socialism of some sort, nationalism or even martyrism. Remember the saying – great minds think alike; that also applies to guerrilla minds & not-so-great minds.
2. Commitment. Total faith, belief and selflessness in the cause. It may be that the guerrilla’s belief in the cause; it may be that people are led, aroused or coerced into the cause, especially by charismatic guerrillas; it may be that the individual and the organization share the same ideals that of effects of the cause; it may be that circumstances whether exogenous or endogenous prefer the guerrilla cause
3. Support. Support from friendly population that would not betray the guerrillas; support for logistics, arms, political powers, strategies & recruitment; like mechanics, for the top structure to stand firm, the bottom structure & foundation must give very good support
4. Vigilance, discipline & endurance. These are critical survival factors as all guerrillas must face deprivation, forgo security & home comforts, constant mobility & dangers. Moving from one place to another, often at the worst of times; chance of being captured & ended; hence, a guerrilla must be vigilant at all times; discipline maintains on commitment to the cause & helps create endurance against all hardships; sometimes, being able to endure longer & better than others would survive like Chinese communism, Cuba’s Castro & Palestinians

• A typical guerrilla individual tends to be:

1. Young. Youth is strongly related to resilience, good health and idealism – traits that are essential for strong belief, endurance against hardships & training; the young are also less restricted in their thinking, hence new synergy can be injected in the cause for rejuvenation; also, young blood helps in the continuation & propagation of the cause
2. Educated. Education really helps in the organization & professionalism of the guerrilla; more resourceful & able to re-coup after failures; also, education also relates & connects people, other educated or not, hence aids in gaining support; a few examples can be given: Mao Zedong was a teacher & librarian; Vo Nguyen Giap & Jonas Savimbi had Ph.Ds; Castro had a law degree; Che Guevara & Agostinho Neto completed medical school; Yasser Arafat was an engineer
3. Motivated. Motivated, enterprising, zealous, whatever to sustain through hardships when despair would be all too easy; motivation may stem from deep need for action coupled with an intense dissatisfaction with the way things are & a distaste for the process of change; attracted by power, glory, heroism, martyrism or control

• For success of the cause, the guerrilla would need:

1. Leadership. Good, charismatic, inspirational & dedicated leadership with good sights (foresights, insights, etc.); that would earn the respect, support and undying commitment from people and guerrillas the same; examples include Mao, Ho Chi Minh & Fidel Castro; failures to rally support include Tupamaros & Che
2. Geography. Terrain and human settlements are critical survival factors. Large variable terrain, with lots of hills & caves (Chinese communists against the Japanese & nationalists, Spanish during Napoleon times), islands (Philippines outlaws, Indonesian pirates & separatists), jungles (Bolivia, Columbia, Angola); Mao was successful in large variable Chinese terrain, while Tupamaros was limited to the city & quickly destroyed
3. External reinforcement. Reinforcement in the form of constant supply of weapons, ammunition, money & sometimes food (if conditions are severe); the guerrillas have to conceal their tracks, hence are often in secluded places that lack supplies, but are perfect for cultivating total commitment to their cause and training

A word on Terrorism

• Terror is haphazard violence done to arouse public fear & undermine the status quo
• Terrorist acts, in Mao’s words, are political power out of the barrel of a gun
• Terrorism can defined as a form of psychological warfare that is used to create extreme fear through the use of threat of force against non-combatant civilian military targets (Paul J Smith, HAPR 2002)
• Terrorism focus attention on the guerrillas & make their cause, determination & power visible to all - it is as much avout psychological maiming as it is about physical destruction
• Roots for terrorism (Paul J Smith 2002):
• External crises: like wars, famines, economic crises in 1997 (South-East Asia) & 2001
• Increasing economic or social disparity: remember the rich-poor divide, the haves-&-the-have-nots (similar to the communist capitalist-worker)
• Latent religious conflict: as evident in Midde-East & Kashmir
• Abundance of small arms & other weapons: especially in Eastern Europe, Middle-East & South-East Asia
• Political fissures: resulting from widespread corruption to weakened governance
• Presence of exogenous groups operating transnational crimes: human smuggling, money laundering, narcotics trafficking, passport fraud, etc.
• Recent events:

1. 24^th July 2001: LTTE 14-man suicidal squad completely destroyed 26 commercial & military aircrafts at Sri Lanka's Bandaranaike international airport
2. 13^th December 2001: 5-man armed suicidal squad attacked Indian Parliament in New Delhi & nearly igniting a war between the World's latest nuclear powers
3. 2001: Malaysia's tourists were captured by Filipino militant group for ransom

• Any wonder why even ordinary people sometimes flare up, throw tantrums, argue, fight & kill?
• Are others being too over-bearing?
• Even games, like Counter-Strike are popularizing
• To fight against terrorism, take lessons from France
• Read The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by Colonel T.E.Lawrence
• Read The Art of War by Sun Zi
• Triple resolutions of the cause:

1. By hand: worst-case, go to arms, destruction of lives & properties, yet this has the most far-reaching impacts; most prevalent in personal conflicts
2. By mouth & mind: by arguments, accusations, litigations; heated & often senseless bickering over minor, at times major, events; chance of escalating into arms conflict, yet bearing the seed for understanding
3. By heart: best case, analogous to winning the hearts of people & loved ones; greatest chance of long-lasting, sustainable & mutual resolution, yet the most volatile, non-equilibrium & difficult to reach; various critical factors need to be identified, cultivated & coupled in the right way

• Where the hearts point towards, the mind follows; where the mind thinks towards, the action follows
• But it is observed – It is better to resolve with the mouth, not by hand, yet it is best to resolve by heart
• Perhaps in the pursuit of some macro goals, attention should instead be focused on micro goals - those left behind in the process

Why guerrilla?

• Simply put, it is their cause
• There is a Chinese saying 人平不語, 水平不流 - Equality promotes silence, just as terrain flatness eliminates water flow
• Equality helps to promote fairness, in that all people are treated as if in the same shoes, yet this is just an ideal, a hypothesis
• As shown in Animal Farm, equality may not be equal in itself
• It is observed that things still go on due to inherent imperfection
• Imperfection of what, you may ask: frankly, there can be as many answers as people asked & as many questions raised as answers given
• Imperfection lies in heterogeneity & perfection lies in homogeneity
• To reach perfection from imperfection, we need to homogenize all heterogeneity,
• Yet equality may not be equal in itself
• As such, it is concluded by the author that the cause of guerrilla would continue to exist, hence guerrilla & terrorism
• Of course, people can suggest and a few would successfully implement antidotes to guerrilla war, but failures can be expected which would feed the present guerrillas & germinate new ones
• Sigmund Freud has highlighted the struggle of the unconscious with conscious
• Which sides of the civilization consciousness are the guerrillas and non-guerrillas on?