No military solution | 4.04.05

Regarding terrorism, oops, insurgency in the South, the prevailing consensus is that force is not an option:

“The military approach only makes fundamentalists more and more strong,” Hasyim Muzadi, chairman of the 40-million member Indonesian Nadhlatul Ulama, told reporters after meeting Thaksin, reported Reuters.

“Problem solving is not only with a military approach, but also a justice approach, an economic approach, and also an educational approach,” he stressed.

Well, try telling that to the militants who have been using indiscriminate force against civilians. And yes, their approach does seem to be making the fundamentalists (i.e. themselves) stronger and stronger.

I agree, however, that there’s no military solution to this problem. You can’t count on the armed forces because, as their reaction to yesterday’s bombings in Hat Yai demonstrates, the military commanders are so incredibly stupid:

Army chief General Prawit Wongsuwan said the insurgents had taken their terror campaign out of the three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat in a last act of desperation.

“[These bombs in Hat Yai] show that our measures are working in the three southernmost provinces,” Prawit said.

Let’s see, their measures are working so well that instead of sniping officials and slashing Buddhist monks here and there in the remote border provinces, they’re now bombing an airport, a hotel, and a department store in the South’s commercial heart.

One should hope their measures won’t be working in Hat Yai, too, because then the bad guys, in their desperate final push, will be taking their campaign to Bangkok.

Perhaps this, then, will come as a relief. Today, a bomb went off in Yala, injuring four soldiers. Later, a police station in Narathiwat came under armed attack. Yala and Narathiwat are, of course, two of the three southernmost provinces mentioned by General Prawit.

Under a wise command, the military can not only crush the terrorists, but also win hearts and minds of innocent locals who suffer the most from terrorism.

We don’t have a wise command. And there’s no solution I can think of.

23:21 ▪ politics

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