One of our delegations reported in with a picture of a letter from the Bicol Business Council that said, “We know you are financed by the NPA. Stop working with them or else. We know you have a family.” Not exactly a friendly reminder from the local chamber of commerce.
I’m reminded of a conversation with Jim Robinson where we discussed the idea of coercion as a general purpose technology. No matter the reason you put men with guns on the ground, they can be used for lots of things, including the interests of the local elites.
That is why counterinsurgency is so dangerous. The strategy entails the increased use of troops and intermixing them into everyday life. Unless the troops both fully understand the local situation and are truly impartial, canny locals can often get them to do their dirty work for them. The flip side is even more dangerous. When the official forces possess limited local knowledge, the temptation is huge to empower and legitimize private armies raised by local landlords to “keep their land values high peace.”
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