Any force that overruns the rebels now to stop the nonsense of meaningless ceasefires and negotiations will carry the credit. Sierra Leoneans want their diamond fields taken away from the thieving Taylor and Nigeria will be hailed forever if it can deny the Liberian Sierra Leone's diamonds. Unlike the Nigerians and the UN, the British have adopted a practical approach to the problem. First, as a civilized nation, they have decided that the RUF rebels are a bunch of primitive barbarians with whom discussion is a waste of time. Second, in order to prepare Sierra Leoneans for a long haul, they are training a Sierra Leonean Army.
Soldiers are more motivated in fighting when defending their Fatherland.
To criticize Britain's training of another country's Army is more neocolonialist than anything the British have done or are doing to make Sierra Leoneans dependent on themselves for their defense. Nigeria could no longer afford the cost of maintaining troops in Liberia. So they adopted a makeshift peace agreement and so-called elections which men like former US president Jimmy Carter bought only to regret recently. The tragic comedy of the elections was made clear when Nigerian tanks greeted elections workers demanding pay they never received. When children are dying in large numbers or left with amputated limbs, when men who want to rule a country subject their people to unimagined barbarities as the RUF and their Liberian chief have, slogans of neo-colonialism become insane and callous.