The recent military debacle in the South forces us irresistibly to make an urgent appeal to the authoritative powers in Sri Lanka. Now that the Tigers, not Lions, are roaring triumphantly at the very doorstep of Jaffna, Sri Lankan authorities must realize that they have no time at all now to take any risk. If Tigers succeed in capturing some sections in Jaffna, that invasion would definitely cause disastrous effects for Sri Lanka, so disastrous that thousands of soldiers would be trapped to be butchered by Tigers, all rehabilitation efforts in Jaffna would end up in smoke, innocent citizens in Jaffna would undergo numerous hardships, and, after all, the image of a unified Sri Lanka will hardly be realized.

At this crucial juncture, we need to judge the leadership skill of some of our military leaders from their past performances. To assume that one would still succeed despite one's previous failures is a profoundly erroneous and irrational conclusion. Srilal Weerasooriya's inefficiency as a leader clearly surfaced in the recent army debacle, in which a vast area, hundreds of lives, and a huge collection of vehicles, weapons, and ammunitions were lost. It would be a disastrous step to rely on his skill any longer. A question one would raise with regard to his failure, of course, is whether Srilal had any intention to defend the Elephant Pass camp, not so much about his skill.

Sri Lankan authority must be aware that Tigers have achieved success during the last few years mainly because of their tactical skill and professional approach to fighting. As far as weapons, humanpower, and other facilities are concerned, Tigers are far behind, yet they keep on winning. Obviously, they have a professional group of advisors to soundly deceive, and consequently to soundly defeat, the Sri Lankan forces. The most recent of such deceptions is Tigers' earlier withdrawal and the immediate attack on the camps in Elephant Pass. By retreating, after some sort of resistance, from the previously captured supply route, Tigers made Sri Lankan forces believe that they (Tigers) were not powerful enough to stop the army's recapture of the supply route. This deceptive feedback made soldiers relax during the festive days, anticipating no immediate threat from Tigers. The eventual disaster of this deception is now a part of history.

The questions are whether Sri Lankan government has any professional team of advisors to counter Tiger tactics, and how capable those advisors are if Sri Lanka has any. First of all, Sri Lanka must learn to rationally evaluate various statements made by Tigers and their supporters through electronic media. Most of those statements mean to deceive the Sri Lankan forces. Deception and danger are lurking in many remarks, particular in some unusual remarks. About a year ago, just before the Tigers overran army camps in Vanni, the Tamil Net made a request to the international organizations, asking to press Sri Lankan government to stop an imminent army attack on Tiger camps in Vanni. Highlighting the possible suffering of innocent civilians, Tigers pretended to imply that they were not strong enough to face Sri Lankan forces if the so-called imminent attack took place. During the same week, Tigers themselves began the attack on army camps and, of course, captured all of them. Thus it became apparent that the objective of the Tigers' request made through the Tamil Net was to place the Sri Lankan forces in a relaxed mood, a position in which Tigers would easily ambush the army camps and capture them.

It is the deception, in multiple forms, that has caused most of the defeats and disasters for Sri Lanka. When revealed, the deception would appear to be almost unbelievable. The Sri Lankan authorities must pay utmost attention to this point. Wisdom is the key term behind military success.

Probably, Sri Lankan government has advisors to rhetorically sugarcoat the defeats experienced by the three forces during the recent past. Such phrases as "tactical withdrawal," "readjustment of the defense lines," "effective retaliation," and "neutralization of Tiger positions" can no longer hide the disgraceful defeats suffered by the triple forces recently. While we admit that rhetoric is useful, in the absence of relevant action, rhetorical power also tends to diminish drastically.

Bravery of Sri Lankan fighters is never in question. With efficient leadership, they have proved that they are always ready to fight valiantly. It is the professional and truthful leadership that matters. When we call leadership, we mean not merely the daredevil attitude of the commanders to fight and die. Rather, we mean the tactful approach characterized by the ability to read Tiger tactics and the ability to invent creative actions to deceive Tigers, along with the commanders' ability to lead the fighters in the field. By ignoring these essential prerequisites for military success, Sri Lankan authorities will only allow the three forces to suffer more defeats.

We are also aware that Sri Lanka president has genuine intention and clear need to defeat the Tigers so that a political change is not the immediate solution to the conflict. Rather, the Sri Lankan president urgently needs a skillful team to provide the indispensable background support and the leadership to the ongoing war. Intention alone does not make us successful; essentially, we need skill to match with intention, and only such a combination leads us to success. We believe that the recent shift of power in the three forces, if it has not created a conflict, is a prudent decision, and some more changes appear to be necessary to some higher positions that retain the same military leaders for a long time.

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