In a world with no systems, with chaos, everything becomes a guerilla struggle, and this predictability is not there.

But Colombia the region s oldest and most stable democracy is still plagued by illegal, armed guerilla organizations. Unlike in other countries, where guerrillas pursued exclusively political demands, Colombia s guerilla groups became involved in drug trafficking, which transformed them into lethal institutional monsters, one part subversive organization and one part criminal mafia.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia Latin America s oldest guerilla group formed alliances with narcotics cartels. Some Taliban groups in Afghanistan and elsewhere developed close ties with transnational Al Qaeda terrorists.

His father, Xi Zhongxun, was one of the top leaders of the Communist revolution. A guerilla leader in the war against Japan, he helped to defeat Chiang Kai shek s Nationalists in China s civil war, became a member of the Central Committee, and then chief of propaganda, Vice Premier, and Governor of Guangdong.

Widespread political violence in both Iran and Latin America in the 1960 s and 1970 s demonstrated a connection between popular feelings of powerlessness and the growth of urban guerilla movements. Leaders of these groups often defended terrorism by insisting that violence was the only means of bringing hope to demoralized people.

The Sunni resistance a guerilla and terrorist war that was well prepared in the last years of Saddam s rule will continue to try to subvert any semblance of order representing the current majority Shia Kurdish coalition. The Sunnis will go on with their murderous attacks on Shias, Kurds, and the US led military coalition.

We will not let up until Colombia is free of guerilla armies. But this irrevocable commitment to defeat terrorism does not preclude us from also prudently pursuing a solution to the conflict through dialogue while avoiding mistakes made in an earlier round of talks, during which a prolonged cease fire allowed the FARC to regain some strength.

Boko Haram, whose primary objective is to compel Nigeria to adopt Sharia law, has proved surprisingly resilient since declaring war on the government in 2009, in response to the military s execution of its leader, Mohammed Yusuf. Using hit and run guerilla tactics and suicide bombers, Boko Haram has attacked police stations, government buildings, and churches, killing thousands.

It was also strengthened by the regime s activities in the 1980 s, when it created Hezbollah as a guerilla organization in Lebanon, thereby expanding its domination over the most important Shiite areas in the region. The Iranian regime then consolidated its mastery of the Shiite network in the Middle East, and now uses this control to further its own interests.

In an anonymous leak to a major financial news service, an ECB official falsely maintained that unanimity was needed for a rate hike, implying a single dove could stop it. Infuriated by what he considered to be guerilla tactics, Trichet effectively silenced the mischief makers by the bold stroke of pre announcing the rate hike two weeks before the meeting.

Indeed, unforeseeable consequences were precisely what concerned Kennan when the United States charged into Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq two years later. After all, it was no coincidence that many of those the US was fighting in Afghanistan, including Osama bin Laden himself, had been associated with the Mujahedeen, the guerilla style units of Muslim warriors whom US forces trained as insurgents during the 1979 1989 Soviet occupation.