Khaleel,

I share some of your frustrations with our inability to come together for the betterment of our dear Gambia. Reading your last response on the NTCG claims of infiltrating Gambia, I assume you have either been in the military or that you are currently serving. You did mention that you have seen combat in real life. I am not sure what capacity you served in combat, but I am afraid that you seem to discount some basic military tactics that can make or break any mission. The element of surprise, as you right alluded to, is one of the principles of war, along with security, maneuver, mass, economy of force etc. You have a problem with the NTCG releasing a press statement announcing their presence on Gambian soil because in your view, that takes away the element of surprise. To a non-military person, that looks like a sound argument but for someone like yourself (someone that has seen real-life combat and not from movies), I would expect that you would know better. Let me pivot here and say that I have a gazillion amount of respect for Joe Sambou (I am yet to meet him). I bring him up because you piggybacked on his take on this same issue. 

The element of surprise is what you make of it. You may have heard of PSYOPS (Psychological Operations) and MILDEC (Military Deception). These are specialties solely dedicated to psychological operations and military deception tactics against an enemy force. In both specialties, the manipulation of information to make the enemy believe what you want them to believe is key. Military deception involves the use of information or propaganda to make the enemy believe a particular piece/set of information (something you want the enemy to believe). An instance of military deception will be when Saddam Hussein was led to believe that the coalitions forces will be conducting an amphibious assault on Iraq during desert storm. A 15,000 Marine Expeditionary Brigade was deployed on 13 different ships in the Gulf poised for an amphibious landing in Kuwait. They even invited unwitting journalists aboard the ships and discussed certain plans of the attack (military deception at work). Saddam positioned five troops for every Marine aboard the ships and dug in ready for the supposed amphibious assault. Ground forces advanced from behind the Iraqi forces and by the time they knew what direction they were being attacked from, it was too late (element of surprise). 

I am not saying this to say the NTCG is engaged in military deception or psychological operations (by releasing a statement to the press). Only they know what their tactics are ( I am not affiliated with them in any capacity). You admitted that you are not familiar with the planning of the "NTCG Operation" and went on to further list certain conditions that must be met if rebel groups can succeed against an established army (defection from the army being one of them). How do you know that those conditions cannot be met by the NTCG given that you are not privy to any of their plans? Military operations go beyond what you see on an operational order (OPORD). The kicking down of doors, combat patrols, raids, ambushes etc are usually part of a larger strategic plan. 

There are other fundamental flaws within your argument but at the risk of saying more than necessary, I will stand down. I will only urge that we all take care in the assumptions we make about other's efforts especially when we are not privy to the inner workings of such organizations. 

I have followed your takes on various issues here and you have some interesting perspectives. Please keep them coming. Thank you. 

V/R

Alhaji Saidy

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