Just flicked thru Maj Phil Ashby's UNSCATHED (which I did a book review on while volunteering with the Red Cross a few yrs back), and though of the following PODs associated with the UN debalce in Sierra Leone in May 2000:
WI the RUF had succeeded in capturing, publicly torturing and burtally murdering (just as they did to kidnapped Zambian APC drivers) the 4 British UNMOs trapped at the Kenyan UN compound, as the author himself feared ? How would Britain have reacted ? Would there have been the Mogadishu factor come into play, or would London have become firmer in its resolve to wipe out the RUF once and for all ?
WI western countries prior in 1999-2000 had actually decided to send their well-trained, well-equipped soldiers to keep and if necessary enforce peace in SL instead of the dubious quality 3rd World contingents (corrupt, trigger-happy rehatted ex-ECOMOG Nigerians with too much of a stake in the conflict, poorly equipped and unfamiliar Zambians, scared Bangladeshix, jumpy Jordanian 'special forces' who apparently couldn't hack operating in the jungle and opened up with their entire arsenal every time they saw a black person approaching their roadblock, claiming they were under attack) that were deployed by UNAMSIL ?
WI the RUF had managed to take Freetown before 1 Para was able to deploy to secure the int'l airport ? How much worse would the bloodbath have been had the paras and No. 42 Commando from HMS OCEAN had to forcibly secure a beach-head ?
WI EO's private military contractors hadn't been forced by world opinion to leave SL in 1996 due to negative propaganda directed against them for being 'mercenaries' ? Would SL have avoided stmubling into the RUF-induced degradation which would plague the ppl there draggiing on for 4-5 more yrs ?
WI foday Sankoh, as RUF leader, had been tried and executed for war crimes and crimes aginst humanity in 1998 or 99 instead of being granted an amnesty and a share in govt under the 1999 Lome Agreement ? or WI he'd been lynched by the angry mob in Freetown on 17th May 2000 instead of being ironically rescued by the British paras ?
WI the RUF had succeeded in capturing, publicly torturing and burtally murdering (just as they did to kidnapped Zambian APC drivers) the 4 British UNMOs trapped at the Kenyan UN compound, as the author himself feared ? How would Britain have reacted ? Would there have been the Mogadishu factor come into play, or would London have become firmer in its resolve to wipe out the RUF once and for all ?
WI western countries prior in 1999-2000 had actually decided to send their well-trained, well-equipped soldiers to keep and if necessary enforce peace in SL instead of the dubious quality 3rd World contingents (corrupt, trigger-happy rehatted ex-ECOMOG Nigerians with too much of a stake in the conflict, poorly equipped and unfamiliar Zambians, scared Bangladeshix, jumpy Jordanian 'special forces' who apparently couldn't hack operating in the jungle and opened up with their entire arsenal every time they saw a black person approaching their roadblock, claiming they were under attack) that were deployed by UNAMSIL ?
WI the RUF had managed to take Freetown before 1 Para was able to deploy to secure the int'l airport ? How much worse would the bloodbath have been had the paras and No. 42 Commando from HMS OCEAN had to forcibly secure a beach-head ?
WI EO's private military contractors hadn't been forced by world opinion to leave SL in 1996 due to negative propaganda directed against them for being 'mercenaries' ? Would SL have avoided stmubling into the RUF-induced degradation which would plague the ppl there draggiing on for 4-5 more yrs ?
WI foday Sankoh, as RUF leader, had been tried and executed for war crimes and crimes aginst humanity in 1998 or 99 instead of being granted an amnesty and a share in govt under the 1999 Lome Agreement ? or WI he'd been lynched by the angry mob in Freetown on 17th May 2000 instead of being ironically rescued by the British paras ?