Rashid, I enjoyed reading your excellent contribution to this debate. I agree with you that we should be engaging ourselves in the sort of debate we are now having about the "question of the organization, deployment and use of arms, force, and violence" and how best to deal with "the undemocratic exercise of power and authority" in Sierra Leone. Because no one has a monopoly on wisdom suggests that we must have this debate now, not later. If, after the dust has settled, the majority of Sierra Leoneans find that a decentralized military structure is untenable in Sierra Leone (and I doubt whether those from the war-ravaged areas would think so), then so be it. The arrangement we would have after such soul-searching would be one that the average Sierra Leonean would understand and (hopefully) support. I suspect, though, that whatever arrangement that we agree on after this war is going involve a transfer of some power from the center (in Freetown) to the periphery (the chiefdoms and districts) in order for it to be sustainable.
We know that the current structure has failed us. We also know that the dominant ideology of all humans involves self-protection. Whether we use an American example or one from Mars maintain our sense of self-protection from future Foday Sankohs, all I am saying is that the arrangement we end up with must have a lot of local input and control in order for it to work. (Sierra Leone, my friends, will never be the same after this war.) Being a charter member of Procrastinators Anonymous, I find little or no value in re-inventing the wheel when there are prototypes from which we could copy and modify to our own tastes, institutions, and culture. Progress, in my opinion, is the result of modifying ideas that have worked elsewhere to suit one's particular circumstances. And, I believe that a decentralized military structure with strong central control is the only option that would give us the flexibility to defend our lives, property, values, and those of our loved ones against future RUFs, and at the same time keep the country intact. The alternative, in my opinion, would be sheer anarchy.
Let's keep thinking and engaging in fruitful debate about our collective future for now. Elections now is a fanciful dream that is currently pushed by those who have a greater sense of their own importance than they really are.
Take care.
Kelfala M. Kallon