Mr. Neville Charmberlain you forgot your Umbre.....Oops. Sorry it is Dr. Kim

Kithsiri Athulathmudali, Florida, USA
(Proud to be an American)

There were two excellent challenges to Dr. Kim Howell, Charles Perera in France and Durand Appuhamy in UK, so I thought I must add my pennies worth of challenge from America. Durnnd's analogy was based on recent Irish IRA terrorists, Charles went further to the second world war. I am going little further in time, to, just before the second world war.

The Prime Minister at that time was Neville Chamberlain. He went to Germany to negotiate a peace deal with Hitler.He came back and told the British Parliament; "Britain could never win a war with Germany, because German military machine is so powerful, Germany can defeat Britain very easily."

I do not know whether Dr. Kim Howell is a direct descendent or a relative of Neville Chamberlain, but it is worth for the Sinhala to analyze phrase "No side can win militarily." This phrase was originally coined by Tamil Nadu Tamils. Then the Indian Government took it over and made sure every Indian government official visiting Sri Lanka, is a must, to repeat this phrase.

Later when Colin Powell was the secretary of state in the US, he highlighted it. His henchman, Jeffery Lunstead, the Federal Comedy Workshop Captain, former US ambassador to Sri Lanka, repeated it several times. He even threw a parting shot at President Rajapakse. He said, "The Street barricades he helped to dismantle are now being once again thrown up." I wonder what route he took to go home.

Certainly not via Iraq or Afghanistan. Every donor country officials visiting Sri Lanka repeats it. Sinhala has to be blamed for this phrase partially, because they do know how to rejoice a military victory. On the contrary, Indians know how to rejoice military achievements. When the mass destructive nuclear device was detonated by India, Indian women lifted their saris danced in the streets. It is because there has been no Sinhala military victory, since the British defeated the Sinhala Rajadhania.

What Dr. Kim Howell conveniently forgets, is the roll Sir Winston Churchill played to win the Second World War. He transferred gold bullion to Canada, so he could fight the Germans from Canada if the Germans managed to occupy Britain. One wonders, at least in my opinion, that Dr. Kim is; an absolute idiot or he thinks that Chandrica and Ranil is still running the country, I do not know. His predecessor, Jack The Straw man gave similar statements. Of course at that time Sri Lanka had a President and a Prime Minister that suppressed the military advancements. So no one could complain about his comments.

Now lets get to the final press release that Dr. Kim gave on February 2nd 2007 and was published on the Lankaweb.com. The third paragraph is one long sentence. Lets look at it in segments. He states "Corrodes the quality of democracy." What the heck is Dr. Kim talking about? Who tried to override the Sri Lanka constitution? Let me answer the question for you. Colin Powell, (Then US secretary of state), Tony Blair and the Norwegians, used the two Sinhala puppets Rani and Chandrika, and nearly achieved it.

Since president Rajapkse took over the presidency of Sri Lanka, plenty of water has flown under the bridge. Condi Rice is the US secretary of state; she is a tough lady and not a marshmallow like Colin Powell. She has helped many governments around the world to combat terrorism. At least Dr. Kim should have taken this fact in to account before making such comments.Now to the last segment of the sentence; "tarnish its image in the international arena." Now who is tarnishing the Sri Lanka image in the international arena? Let me answer this question for Dr. Kim again. The Norwegians, British, EU and the 38 misguided US congressmen.

Now let me explain to you what devolution of power for the merged Northern and Eastern provinces mean; It is to have joint sovereignty of the merged provinces with Tamil Nadu. Sinhala language will not be allowed, only Tamil language will be allowed. There will be a new constitution for this region with Tamil Nadu chief Minister having the veto power over any thing, including oil and gas rights. Is this going to happen! I do not think so. The founding fathers of the Sri Lanka constitution made sure of that. If you still do not believe it, read the questions that were put to president Rajapkse by Tamil journalists last week.

Now, if you seriously want to get deeply involved (as stated Dr. Kim's press release) in helping Sri Lanka I suggest you do the following:

1. Since Sri Lanka is going to drill for oil in the northern waters there should be security in that region. To achieve this the Tamil terrorists have to be eliminated. You should offer five Harrier Jump Jets, identical to the ones that are currently used in Iraq, on lease for five years to the Sri Lankan military.

2. Donate a current field hospital, similar to the ones that are used in Iraq.

3. Arrange an agreement between Israeli government and Sri Lanka government to build one hundred Dora fast attack crafts for the use of by Sri Lankan cost guard.

Dr. Kim this conflict did not start in the nineteen eighties as the international community thinks it did, or after the Sinhala defeat to the British, or even after the Dutch defeated the Portuguese and took over the northern province. No, it started when Dutugamunu Maha Rajathuma and his Kadol Atha drove Elara back to Tamil Nadu. So, fighting Tamil terrorists for Sinhala is a journey and not a destination.

Finally, what I read from e-mails floating about; Dr. Kim forgot his hat at the office of defense secretary Gotabaya. He immediately sent a messenger and delivered it to the British High Commission. I do not know how far this is true. I only go by the what I read in the e-mails. If this is true and I was Gotabaya, I would have done it differently. I would have asked a fighter pilot in Sri Lanka Air Force and given him the right type of aircraft that can fly under the radar, and then, ask him to drop it on the British Parliamentary grounds.

Kithsiri Athulathmudali, Florida, USA (Proud to be an American)