Quote Originally Posted by JMA View Post
Nigerians don't need any guidence from Sri Lanka as they are well acquainted targeting civilians when the armed groups are too difficult to find.

I suggest that this is merely a 'trick' to justify the only approach they know... so when the bodies of the civilians begin to pile up they will have a excuse saying they are merely following the Sri Lankan doctrine.

Your comment on the legalistic approach to war is correct in that - certainly in Afghanistan - you have hog-tied your troops to the extent the Taliban can and will declare victory. You can see this can't you?
Let me also add that save French intervention, Ivory Coast would have been at least two separate nations: one on the coast & another in the North. France moved to preserve its colonial sphere of influence there.

The thing is this - as time goes on, French & US ability to do these sorts of interventions wanes - the birth rates in the Sahel are frightening & there's no way a few French thousand troops will be able to restore order indefinitely.

So Africa is reverting more natural borders - that would be a major story of this Century.