It is not because they can defeat the government but they feel the government cannot defeat them. They will wage a continuous war of resistance to wear out government forces.

This truce is because of Ramadan. After the holy month we might expect fireworks to resume.

Years later, he would say that his rethinking began with one memorable interview with a senior Vietcong captain. He was asked very early in the interview if he thought the Vietcong could win the war, and he said no.

But pages later, he was asked if he thought that the US could win the war, and he said no.

The second answer profoundly changes the meaning of the first. He didn't think in terms of winning or losing at all, which is a very different proposition. An enemy who is indifferent to the outcome of a battle is the most dangerous enemy of all.

Now why did Kellen see this and Goure did not? Because Goure didn't have the gift.

Goure was someone who filtered what he heard through his own biases. His biases were that this was 1965. The US was the most powerful country in the history of the world. North Vietnam was a speck that had barely entered the Industrial Revolution.

In just the first bombing campaign of the war, Operation Rolling Thunder, the US dropped as many bombs on this tiny speck as the RAF dropped on all of Germany throughout WWII.

Goure looked at the numbers and he could not believe that anyone could stand up in the face of that kind of assault. So he read that second sentence in the interview and he stopped listening.


Kellen was different. He had the gift. He was 20 when Hitler took over in Germany and he immediately packed his bags and didn't return until after the war was over. When asked why he left when he did, he would always say the same thing: "I had a feeling."

An enemy who is indifferent to the outcome of a battle is the most dangerous enemy of all”

Hitler made it perfectly plain what his attitude towards the Jews was in those years, but most people didn't listen. Kellen did. That doesn't sound like a great accomplishment, but it was.

Listening is hard because the more you listen, the more unsettling the world becomes. It's a lot easier just to place your hands over your ears and not listen at all.

So Kellen stood up and said that Goure was wrong, that the Vietcong were not giving up and were not demoralised. It was not, he said, a battle the US could win - not today, not tomorrow and not the day after tomorrow.

For Boko Haram to fail, we have to engage the citizens in those states. Help them with education, good healthcare and poverty reduction through massive agricultural initiative and a well regulated and armed local militia to counter the Boko Haram insurgents. The key to victory is the people and not the military alone.

citizenisb: For Boko Haram to fail, we have to engage the citizens in those states. Help them with education, good healthcare and poverty reduction through massive agricultural initiative and a well regulated and armed local militia to counter the Boko Haram insurgents. The key to victory is the people and not the military alone.

when Buhari said the same many Nigerians called him silly, now who is silly ?