CAN the Sri Lankan government with its hardline approach to dealing with the LTTE not only win the war, but long lasting peace and more importantly the favorable opinion of the outside world? The answer most probably would be in the negative, if one is to go by what the popular media says.
Most of the media appear to portray a negative perception of any peaceful outcome in the aftermath of the military operations, even though none offer valid reasons or facts other than their own concocted behavioral forecasts to base those predictions on. Some quite obviously are media that have long been supportive of the tamil tiger cause such as AP and BBC, while some who are supporters of Sri Lanka's opposition party who attempt to paint all possible outcomes in bleak terms for obvious reasons.
Since the LTTE deprived water to 30,000 civillians by shutting off the sluice gates in Mavil Aru, these media have been consistently drumming in a 'no win possible' message targetting Sri Lankans home and abroad. For many years such media was successful in maintaining a conviciton in the minds of most Sri Lankans that the Tigers cannot be defeated militarily and demotivated successive governments from making a concerted effort. Thus the media by design or default performed a valuable psy-ops function for the tamil tiger terrorists who thrived unchallenged. That was until it decided to take the war to the present government, either severely under-estimating its decisiveness to prevail in a war to the finish, or over-estimating its own ability to surviev all out war against the Sri Lankan state. A post mortum would probably indicate both.
Last weekend's confrontation in which over 525 including high ranking LTTE cadre were killed or surrendered to the Sri Lankan Defence Forces broke the terror group's back decisively. Losses in men and material, organizational and operational capabilities in this one episode has now effectively finished the LTTE as a fighting force when compared to the SLDF units staring them in the face, simply waiting to be unleashed.
The government appears to have temporarily stayed the hand of the executioner, and very rightly so. There is increased pressure on the SLG to prevent civillian casualties from many nations and from the UN. While some of these obviously are from those who wish to find some way to save the LTTE leadership from capture yet again, most are well intended and are requests from nations which seek a civilized way of doing things. By acceeding to such requests at least for a short while, the SLG wins the goodwill of our friends at the marginal risk that the friends of our enemies may use the window of opportunity to attempt to rescue the LTTE leadership. Or they may seek international intervention under the guise of humanitarian action. These risks seem well worth the goodwill we will earn by treating the international community's wishes with adequate respect as far as they can be practically accomodated.
Providing a reasonable time frame in which the LTTE is pressured into letting the civillians go would be more than enough for the SLG to do as a responsible government. As a responsible government the SLG's primary obligation is national security and thus eliminating the tamil tigers cannot become secondary to any other consideration. That is why the SLG needs to put counter-pressure on the UN and other friendly nations to understand that we will not be idle in such status quo for long and will take action to eradicate terrorism within a short time. While not engaging the enemy directly, the army must be allowed to conduct operations to facilitate the movement of civillians away from the LTTE controlled area, which can no longer be considered a no-fire zone due to the attacks emanating from therein. The right to shoot in self-defence must always remain unchallenged.
There is a bottom line to this situaion, as is for any other. It is only as long as we insist our security to be a non-negotiable prime concern that other nations will recognize our right to exist. It is only to the extent we are willing to go to defend our territory that others will allow us our soveriegnty. It is only to the extent that we stand firm on our convictions and are prepared to fight for them that the world will respect us.
If the LTTE refuses to let go of the civillian human shield, it becomes the government's responsibility to go in and bring them out. How we do that, we can discuss to some extent with concerned friends. But it must be held to a firm time line, enforceable unilaterally on our side.
Destroying the LTTE over-rides anything else. The continued existance of this virulent terrorist group's leadership is a threat to the very existance of our nation and its elimination is a priority which must be achieved without delay. We owe no obligation to discuss our means or methodology with anyone. In a worst case scenario, SLG should be prepared to go in and finish the LTTE irrespective of international community concerns. Good will can be earned again later if necessary. In two years from now, no one will give a rat's ass as to how many died in the process but will only remember how we defeated terrorism.
Most of the media appear to portray a negative perception of any peaceful outcome in the aftermath of the military operations, even though none offer valid reasons or facts other than their own concocted behavioral forecasts to base those predictions on. Some quite obviously are media that have long been supportive of the tamil tiger cause such as AP and BBC, while some who are supporters of Sri Lanka's opposition party who attempt to paint all possible outcomes in bleak terms for obvious reasons.
Since the LTTE deprived water to 30,000 civillians by shutting off the sluice gates in Mavil Aru, these media have been consistently drumming in a 'no win possible' message targetting Sri Lankans home and abroad. For many years such media was successful in maintaining a conviciton in the minds of most Sri Lankans that the Tigers cannot be defeated militarily and demotivated successive governments from making a concerted effort. Thus the media by design or default performed a valuable psy-ops function for the tamil tiger terrorists who thrived unchallenged. That was until it decided to take the war to the present government, either severely under-estimating its decisiveness to prevail in a war to the finish, or over-estimating its own ability to surviev all out war against the Sri Lankan state. A post mortum would probably indicate both.
Last weekend's confrontation in which over 525 including high ranking LTTE cadre were killed or surrendered to the Sri Lankan Defence Forces broke the terror group's back decisively. Losses in men and material, organizational and operational capabilities in this one episode has now effectively finished the LTTE as a fighting force when compared to the SLDF units staring them in the face, simply waiting to be unleashed.
The government appears to have temporarily stayed the hand of the executioner, and very rightly so. There is increased pressure on the SLG to prevent civillian casualties from many nations and from the UN. While some of these obviously are from those who wish to find some way to save the LTTE leadership from capture yet again, most are well intended and are requests from nations which seek a civilized way of doing things. By acceeding to such requests at least for a short while, the SLG wins the goodwill of our friends at the marginal risk that the friends of our enemies may use the window of opportunity to attempt to rescue the LTTE leadership. Or they may seek international intervention under the guise of humanitarian action. These risks seem well worth the goodwill we will earn by treating the international community's wishes with adequate respect as far as they can be practically accomodated.
Providing a reasonable time frame in which the LTTE is pressured into letting the civillians go would be more than enough for the SLG to do as a responsible government. As a responsible government the SLG's primary obligation is national security and thus eliminating the tamil tigers cannot become secondary to any other consideration. That is why the SLG needs to put counter-pressure on the UN and other friendly nations to understand that we will not be idle in such status quo for long and will take action to eradicate terrorism within a short time. While not engaging the enemy directly, the army must be allowed to conduct operations to facilitate the movement of civillians away from the LTTE controlled area, which can no longer be considered a no-fire zone due to the attacks emanating from therein. The right to shoot in self-defence must always remain unchallenged.
There is a bottom line to this situaion, as is for any other. It is only as long as we insist our security to be a non-negotiable prime concern that other nations will recognize our right to exist. It is only to the extent we are willing to go to defend our territory that others will allow us our soveriegnty. It is only to the extent that we stand firm on our convictions and are prepared to fight for them that the world will respect us.
If the LTTE refuses to let go of the civillian human shield, it becomes the government's responsibility to go in and bring them out. How we do that, we can discuss to some extent with concerned friends. But it must be held to a firm time line, enforceable unilaterally on our side.
Destroying the LTTE over-rides anything else. The continued existance of this virulent terrorist group's leadership is a threat to the very existance of our nation and its elimination is a priority which must be achieved without delay. We owe no obligation to discuss our means or methodology with anyone. In a worst case scenario, SLG should be prepared to go in and finish the LTTE irrespective of international community concerns. Good will can be earned again later if necessary. In two years from now, no one will give a rat's ass as to how many died in the process but will only remember how we defeated terrorism.
1 comment:
like ur writing style dude,.........keep it up...
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