In this article, I briefly describe what the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham now known as the Islamic State is, and what its goals are. I also suggest three lessons countries like Nigeria should learn from the tragedy that has befallen Iraq.

Link to the article:

http://janguzaarewa..co.uk/2014/08/on-islamic-state-group.html

Boko Haram’s five-year long insurgency shows no sign of abating. With the group now seemingly capable of seizing and holding territory, questions over the military’s competence have grown louder. To rescue the army’s wounded pride our military and political leaders often point to what they claim is the army’s “stellar credentials” in bringing peace to war ravaged countries. The ECOMOG missions in Liberia and Sierra-Leone in the 1990s, which the Nigerian military led, is often presented as the prime exemplar of the army’s competence in combat. I've lost count of how many times I've heard something like “our boys brought peace to Liberia and Sierra-Leone” whenever questions are raised over the badly mishandled war against Boko Haram. But just how true is this claim?

In this article, I argue that the reality was far from the case. In neither country did the military achieve its objectives. And in Sierra-Leone, reading Brigadier Adeshina's "The Reversed Victory", one gets the distinct impression Nigeria came within a hair's breath of strategic defeat.

Link to the article:

http://janguzaarewa..co.uk/2014/08/did-nigerian-army-actually-succeed-in.html