Was It A Compromised Mission?

 Abdul SavageBy Abdul Savage

FIRST and FOREMOST, let me state here my position again, the thousandth time now, that I do not discount the use of force to take over a government. For God’s sake, Yaya Jammeh staged a coup, used force, to take over the previous government. SO, I do not discount it. Anything is possible. BUT, I DO NOT support, I DO NOT condone and will never be part of anything and everything that involves coups, or any violent method to take over a government. PERIOD. That is my belief and conviction. I know what the use of force can do, both from personal and professional experience. And taking over a government by force or any “violent method” is not a good thing. NOW, allow me to proceed:

Bravery does not mean you do stupid stuff. Bravery means you plan and execute smartly, and do not compromise the integrity of any mission, be it a covert or overt mission. From what we all publicly know NOW, people were killed, dead, because of the recklessness of some, and the inadequate planning and poor, cowardly execution of a flawed plan, which was primarily instigated by some people, or a tiny group of people, who were behind the scene using some people as puppets. I used the words “cowardly execution” because we now know in the heat of a firefight, some men ran away, instead of staying in a firefight and return fire. In other words, some of these soldiers, or men, left behind a fallen comrade. From a military point of view, Our CREED is: you NEVER, ever, leave a Comrade behind, dead or alive.

And people who were behind the scene blame everyone else but themselves. These people are one ungrateful bunch, and now the families of the dead are left holding the bag, with bills, loss of loved ones, and so on, and even possible criminal records await some people. Do you think I would risk everything I have worked for all my life for an ungrateful bunch of people with selfish agendas and twisted designs, or an ungrateful Nation?   NO, I will not. America is a Grateful Nation, and I risked everything for it, because I know if I was killed when I was at war, they will take care of my loved ones I left behind.

People’s lives have been ruined or changed because of the instigation of some self-centered people, or the poorly, ill-planned and miserably executed action of some.

My record, both private and public, speaks for itself, and so I do not need to prove to anyone or impress anyone by engaging or doing something stupid, and call it “fighting for freedom”, especially when this “freedom thing” or “fight” has all the hallmarks and trimmings of nepotism, friendship, and other vices, at the expense of what is best for Country. Of course, what is best for Country is change of regime, but doing such compromised mission as was recently attempted was certainly not in the best interest of country, but in the interest of a select, selfish, twisted-agenda-driven few. And I will not be part of anything and everything that benefits a select few at the expense of Nation. I must declare here that I support and advocate for regime change in the Gambia, but I do not advocate, condone or support using the barrel of the gun, violent or any such means or method. I support and advocate for regime change through democratic means by a United Front, that starts in the diaspora, and linking up with the political players on the ground, to face and deal with a shared and common predicament.

Once again, I appeal for and call on all these diverse diasporan organizations to come under Unity of Action, under one body of leadership, link up with our political players on the ground to likewise come together to face and deal with our shared and common predicament. WE need the players on the ground as much as they need us.

Thank you.

 

By Abdul Savage

Retired, US Army

Member, Military Order of The Purple Heart,

Member, Veterans of Foreign Wars.

 

27 Comments

  1. Brave position Abdul, yet hard to accept. I concour with your views. Jammeh can be tackle in any visible way, but no relaince on his own men.

  2. Luntango Suun Gann Gi

    Wow! A Gambian calling a spade a spade. No BS, just the truth. Impressive stuff.

  3. wow,thanks to this one ungrateful bunch and their fallen comrades,highly experienced personnel and think tanks are showing up!force or unforced,right or wrong;one thousand miles journey begins with a step.Mr. savage,if you ever come across this comment,my question is,what is the ultimatum on the ground to free hostages???Our families way forward home are hostages!!!

  4. Mr savage , you have every rights not to support coup or military intervention to remove Jammeh from power but you do not have any rights without preponderance evidence to make judgement about those who attempted to remove him from power , by indicating that it has hallmark of nepotism , friendship and not in the best interest of the country . How you do know their plan is not in the best interest of the country since they did not succeed? You are simply prejudging their efforts . Remember that if Jammeh did not succeed in his coup , majority of his supporters today will say the same thing in 1994, that the coup is not in best interest of the country .
    President Jammeh said on multiple occasions that neither election nor coup will remove him from power , he refused to create democratic environment where you can have free and fair election , freedom of speech , political pluralism , accountability and presidential term limits . State house attackers did selfless sacrifice to rescue the country from a Tyrant . These people had better living condition than you. They had made mistake in their planning by depending on unreliable peoples in gambia military but remember that in every military operation , there are risk of failure . You can’t said that there will be 100 percent guarantee of success in any military operation . So your criticism is ill-conceived and is meant to sow seed of discord .
    You will agree with me , there is no way the current political parties can unseat president Jammeh . The only viable options are through popular uprising or military operation (coup). In the case of former , the chance of that happening in The Gambia is very zero considering the political awareness of the people and current environment of the country .
    Even the democratic process you are advocating , just recently how many people died in senegal when wade attempted to stay in power forever ? How many people died in ivorycoast or elsewhere when their leaders refused to step down ? There is risk in any change of government when you have a leader who is not ready to relinquish power . This is the fact and I hope you understand the reality on the ground before you make your irresponsible statements about these selfless Gambians . If Jammeh has created democratic environment he promised in 1994 , and put in place presidential term limits , the chance of attempted coup will be minimized . When you exhausted all legal and democratic avenues , then the use of violent will be the ultimate method . This is current predicament of the Gambia .

  5. Yea the CREED ‘never ever leave you comrades behind, dead or alive’, was why Chuck Nor risking went on a mission 20 years later in search of US POWs and MIAs in Vietnam.

  6. This contribution could almost be considered similar to Rt Col.Annes
    ” for and against the use of force”

    Both may be considered a soliloquy { personal thoughts that are spoken in private}

    Similar to Hamlet…..in Shakespeares….time.

    To be or not to be, that is the question, whether it is nobler to bare the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

    Or to take arms against a sea of troubles..and by opposing, end them.

    Mr Savage has obviously seen the uncertain aftermath of military conflict.

    His words and wisdom based upon personal experience is well noted.

  7. Deyda Haidara

    Mr Savage if you cannot do the job of removing Jammeh by all means necessary, just shut up let the brave and fearless gambians try and try again and again until Jammeh is removed and sent to hell. If those brave gambians succeeded in their operation all of you cowards will be jumping and pounding your chest to show gambians that your voice online did a good job in sensitizing freedom fighters.

  8. Mr scales , his words are completely based on naivety and lack of understanding that there is a risk in any change of government in unfavorable environment especially when a brutal dictator indicated that Gambians must be patient than a vulture for him to relinquish power . Today Europe and America are beacon of democracy simply because they defeated tyranty and dictatorship. Sometimes conflict becomes a necessity to bring peace democratic and stable society though it could be unpleasant and costly .

  9. Lamin Njie

    Mr Savage you speak for the silent majority and the truth will finally prevail and the true in tension of those behind sending these young people to such a compromise mission will face the full force on the law after the fall of JAMMEH>

  10. So Mr Savage you and some twisted minds like yours believe you made a good point. You have a problem and to solve your problem, simply shut up because the more you open your mouth, the more you expose your problem.

  11. To be honest my blame goes to the Online papers giving platform to Mr Savage. Lest they know that here is a double agent who is not part of the struggle. We still cannot identify wolves in sheep clothing among us. Let’s not go too far with this man only to come to a regret.

    It is a shame that Mr Savage is condemning the coup rather than commend these galant men who shed their lives to liberate Gambia. As a brave and tactical soldier he is claiming to be, let him go to Gambia and do the job better than sit in his cosy room and ciriticise. It easy to say than to do. Does he not know that military adventures involve risks. Attacks are win and loose just as the USA, the world’ s biggest power lost at Vietnam , Iraq, Iran and the latest Afghanistan.

    How can he be a soldier, a Gambian for that matter, to be criticising the death? Mr Savage is a hypocrite and nothing but a JAMMEH agent and we all should recognise it before it is too late. Has he ever attended a demonstration? NO.Does he ever contribute to funds to help the struggle, NO. This man is a dangerously Gambian, a sinister fellow and my appeal is that we all abandon him, especially the papers to refuse him publication. Thank you.

  12. Alieu Lowe

    Salute you soldier. You are spot on Savage. Keep calm and focus. Dictator Jammeh is our problem. But how to handle him is paramount.

  13. Luntango Suun Gann Gi

    It seems to Luntango that the majority here want to do only 2 plus 2 maths all day. I am afraid Mr Savage is a good teacher and he won’t settle for that: he wants his students to tackle Algebra now – whether they like it or not. As the Head-teacher I would praise and promote Mr Savage.

  14. This Savage is an attention seeker and wants to fit into the inner circle of the struggle when no one is noticing him. How many articles did he write about this struggle? When he called a conference, how many participated? Answer is zero because nobody wants to be associated with you and that you lack leadership qualities. You should be a follower as in marketing some are leaders whilst some are followers because you lack the basic capabilities.

    When you talk about your training and skills as a combatant, I laugh my ass off for the simply fact that you did not do your drills correctly that’s why you got shot. You can only be shot when you are visible so something terribly went wrong. I was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and lost some of my mate but that doesn’t mean that they are not good enough. You were just a junior soldier and we have Gambians in the top hierarchy of USA and UK but you will never hear them.

    Savage good soldiers are still planning to bring an end to dictatorship in our mother land but talk is keep. You just keep on ranting as a mad man. Military operations fails sometimes but does not mean poor planning, for example how many rescue operations of Seals fail in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

    Please leave our heroes alone and all we need is constructive criticism. Most of them are better of than you and enjoying the American Dream, so for them to take such a risky venture deserve commendation.

    Please keep your ill-feeling to yourself.

    Thanks

  15. I recall standing at the gates of the Atlantic hotel in July 2000 with Dr Saja Taal { A man who always denied knowing me}

    Suddenly and at high speed a car passed the gates followed by two land rovers with manned mounted machine guns.

    I enquired from Taal…”.who the hell was that ” ?

    Dr Taal said….”That is our President ….but if you wait a little longer, you will see an ambulance will follow in precisely 3 minutes.”

    Dr Tall was right.

    I said to Taal…. ” There is a man in touch with his destiny”

    I believe Dec 30th is a ” game changer”

    The future is less determined by what Gambian’s can do. But more determined how President Jammeh will respond ?

    To date he has acted so predictably.

    ” Time and tide wait for no man”

    “tomorrow the land will be free”

  16. Mr savage keep it quiet.

  17. Mr Jeng, thank you for your wise words and service. Every military mission has potential for failure. Mr savage’s lack of that understanding is extremely disappointing, to say the least. I am sure if these guys were successful, it will be a different story from him. To castigate these brave and patriotic Gambians is inhuman and uncivilized. Each of these people, you could have continue to enjoy their comfort home, keep their well paying job and military benefits, but they decided to sacrificed all that for Gambian people. Today even Mr Savage is able to enjoy his stay in America thanks to selfless sacrifice of Mr King and other civil rights leaders. The same thing applied to emancipation of South Africa through the help of gallant men like Mandela and others. Mr Savage, freedom and democracy is never achieve on silver plate, you must work and demand it.

  18. I went through Monrovia, capital of Liberia.What I learnt is that, war is horrible,terrible and painful and leaves unfading scares but despite the fact, it does not mean the fall of nation.The colourful twenty/twentfive storeys that line downtown Monrovia avenues,their cleanliness,it’s serious looking people look humble and steadfast and honest.It seems they have done so much in a very short time and are still making a tremendous recovery till the outbreak of the obstructive Ebola.

  19. I agree with Mr.Jeng. Heroes are heroes likewise patriots are patriots. I respect you for your fruitful contribution to the burning Gambia issue, but nonetheless I have seen it worthwhile, to urge you, to apologise for comments you made online about the brave men and their fallen comrades of Dec . 30th, 2015. Thanks for your positive consideration.
    Fellow brother.

  20. That is it to the Max; Freedom and democracy is NEVER achieved on a silver plate.May Gambia’s be achieved on one.

  21. Luntango Suun Gann Gi

    @GapamGapam: What are you saying? That Gambia should have a civil war like Liberia? NO, NO, NO is the answer of The Gambians living INSIDE Gambia.

  22. Lutang Suu ghi,you make me sound like war. I was just trying to express my lack willingness to be deterred from the struggle for the restoration of democracy and the rule of law in the Gambia by the simple menace of war becoming its repercussion by naive minded people.Lutang Suu Ghi, in fact I start to believe that Gambians are far much more intelligent than to break up a civil war.By the way, you must be able to differentiate between a WAR and a COMMANDO RESCUE OPERATION!

    • Luntango Suun Gan Gi

      LoL, thank you for the smile Gapam! “Commando Rescue Operation” is indeed NOT War! I humbly accept you are a man of peace Bro. Peace to you, Chi Jamma (or Chi Jammeh – as I used to say when I was a naughty young man!)

  23. In ascertaining my support for Max, when he said, our heroes deserve respect.I later mentioned the word ‘apology’, and I think Mr.Savage owes that to our 30th December men and their fallen comrades and their families.

  24. Bro, I even recall naughtier ones going as far as saying (Annabillai jammeh ) I am glad I’ve never been that naughty.Bro,one thing as a matter of fact,war is why I fear all dictatorship. Peace Bro Luntango and to all Gambia.

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