CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Back to Basics - Teach the LTTE that "What Goes Around Comes Around!"

Nissanka

LTTE has slaughtered over 60 SL defense forces personnel from the Army, Navy and the Police over the past 6 weeks. Most have been killed through dreaded Claymore mine ambushes while others have been simply shot or grenade blasted while performing guard duty.

What is the GOSL waiting for?
Is the GOSL waiting for the "International Community" to bail out Sri Lanka at this hour of critical need?

After the slaughter of 18 Navy personnel (and wounding 20) on December 23rd, the GOSL summoned the so called guarantors of the "cease fire" (Norway, Japan, UK, EU, US) and asked them to enquire into the horrific ceasefire violations by taking up the dire consequences such ceasefire violations with the LTTE. This they did - cosmetically - by visiting Kilinocchi and simply came back empty handed. It is evident that no protest was lodged with the LTTE. GOSL expected these guarantors to give the LTTE an ultimatum to cease and desist, just as these guarantors would have certainly done with the GOSL, had the Sri Lankan armed forces attacked the LTTE unprovoked, on the same scale. What a disappointment this has been! In the way of giving a real response to these so called guarantors of the ceasefire, yesterday the LTTE detonated yet another Claymore mine killing 11 more soldiers and wounding four.

So much for the so called "International Safety Net" that Ranil Wickremasinghe banked on when he let the guard down and provided all the freedom for the LTTE to enter GOSL controlled areas to do "political work." It is now evident that this freedom has been used by the LTTE to smuggle in Claymore mines and set them up at tactically suitable locations within GOSL controlled areas, in readiness for the next "Eelam war" which is now raging on - albeit undeclared by the LTTE. Ranil being shortsighted and naïve, gave away lock stock and barrel and thought LTTE will not resort to another attack on the GOSL and even if it did, the "International Safety Net" would come to Sri Lanka's aid. What a motherload of horse-poop this has turned out to be! On both counts, he has been proven wrong and frankly, must be held accountable for the horrific losses now piling up on the country's armed forces.

President MR, what is your strategy here? What are you waiting for? If not the "International Safety Net" (which has turned out to be a white elephant), are you expecting India to step in and contain the LTTE? If so, that will be your next biggest disappointment. India, while non-sympathetic to the LTTE, has her own regional politics to contend with and that will bar her from directly stepping in and "containing" the LTTE.

Therefore, all this "waiting for others to step in and contain the LTTE," which is amounting to one disappointment after another, is making the defense capability of the nation bleed slowly, but surely. In addition to the 60 personnel killed, nearly 70 others have been wounded, some severely. This means that nearly 130 defense personnel have be "neutralized" by the LTTE over 5 weeks without declaring war!! I do not believe Prabhakaran's strategy is to attack the SL armed forces so that he can negotiate from a position of strength as some pundits have said. Rather, I see his strategy is to reduce the SL defense forces' number slowly, but surely at a steady pace, and then go for the "final push" that LTTE has been promising the Tamils abroad since of late. While reducing the SL armed forces' strength in number through these ambushes (which also appeases his sadistic appetite to spill "Sinhela blood"), he is banking on the inevitable desertions from the forces once the rank and file begins to see the horror of this undeclared war. Then he is confident that there is nothing to negotiate about and the fascist, racist terrorist state of Eelam would be his at last.

So the question that begs the answer is - when is the GOSL going to wake up to this realty and apply effective containment measures? When is the GOSL going to stop the bleeding? Sadly, this is not something that appears to be happening soon. As I noted earlier, the GOSL appears to be in a trance, "waiting for others to step in contain the LTTE" and this hollow expectation is going to be a serious and a costly blunder that can easily spell the doom to Sri Lanka. To use a chess analogy, the GOSL is today sacrificing its vital pieces in a careless, thoughtless, fashion and when the King is going to be under attack soon, there will not be enough pieces left on the board to counter attack.

LTTE has shown that you do not need to declare war to strategically reduce opponent's combatants. What is the mystery in this simple notion that appears to be eluding the GOSL and her defense establishment? Is it a shortage of equally lethal (to LTTE's) Claymore mines and a lack of Special Forces specialists to show that "What Goes Around, Comes around?" Somehow, I do not think so!

Stupendous and mind-boggling indeed!

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