I just completed a round trip to Cuito by road and was there for the 23 March celebrations. Simon Barber completely misses the point. Von Clauswitz once wrote that 'war is politics by other means'. War is not about how many enemy soldiers and equipment you destroy, it is simply not cricket. If we look a the geo-politics if Southern Africa after March 1988 we see a rapid collapse of the South African Laager in Namibia with the 'frontier' suddenly narrowing down not to some international border but to the border between the townshipos and the suburbs. The MPLA is still in power in Angola, SWAPO is in power in Namibia, and the ANC is in power in South Africa.

The Vietcong lost far more soldiers in Vietnam than the United States, yet the Vietcong won the war. We could say the same about Algeria, Mocambique and Rhodesia. My question to Simon Barber and his ilk is: when is the white male ego going to accept that white racial domination and occupaion of territories where black and yellow people are native majorities will be resisted to the death?

Since its inception, Cuba has played a supportive role in African independence struggles. Support ranged from doctors and teachers to military personnel, from Guinea to Ethiopia, and from Algeria to Angola. Perhaps the most decisive support was to Angola in its post-independence war with apartheid South Africa. The battle of Cuito-Cuanavale was a major turning point in southern Africa’s defeat of the apartheid regime.

No amount of denial will change the political outcome of the battle of Cuito Canavale. Africans know and appreciate this. Those who resent the defeat of their racial dominance and illegal occupation of the lands of others rue it.