33 Comments

1. Willie G:

Peace is really only possible when BOTH sides decide they’ve had enough of war.

Whether that has happened in Sri Lanka is for someone else to say.

May 16, 2009 - 5:08 pm 2. RAH:

No Wiilie, peace also happens when one side is dead. If there is no other side to fight with than there is peace until you create a new enemy.

May 16, 2009 - 5:39 pm 3. Raoul Ortega:

what it often implies is that in the modern world, wars never come to an end. They go on and on, kept on life support by diplomacy for reasons best known to historians.

There’s lots of money (and power) to be made by “peace-mongers” and those who profit in unending war while appearing to alleviate human suffering. Just ask any U.N. bureaucrat or NGO “activist”.

May 16, 2009 - 5:43 pm 4. Pascal:

Wretchard, you obviously do not agree with me that what you call modern, I would call contemporary. The reason is, as I’ve argued more than once, is that postmodernists would never ever put an end to killers. Killers, for good cause or bad, are too valuable to the postmodernist.

One more thing. Just as Seinfeld made a running gag over the line “not that there’s anything wrong with that,” and it spilled over into popular jargon, so too has the word postmodern grown the not uncommonly used bywords: “whatever that means,” after more than a few popular opinion makers commonly said exactly that.

They are not kidding any thinking individual with this game. So let me be clear what one finds with a little bit of research.

Postmodern means exactly what it implies: the Progressive movement is regressive and repressive, and nothing is allowed to appear as it seems, just like the word postmodern itself.

May 16, 2009 - 6:05 pm 5. Pascal:

I would title that last criticism: “No, it is not a modern phenomenon; it is postmodern.” Everything that appears nonsensical to a normal individual with a soon to be antiquated modern perspective will begin to make very chilling sense once you recognize how many movers and shakers have adopted the bizarre, anti-modern worldview of the postmodernist.

May 16, 2009 - 6:21 pm 6. Herb:

“More Filipino civilians, then US nationals, died in the Battle of Manila than Japanese civilians in either Hiroshima or Nagasaki.”

Thats called perspective.

She said “…will there be anyone left to negotiate with?” Not if they are dead.

Why would one negotiate?

A negotiation is supposed to lead to an agreement which is an arrangement between peers to govern their relationship. It may be for a short period (to years) or permanent (a treaty) but it is a final agreement but may provide for amendment. I dont see this happening with the LTTE simply based on their prior acts.

Kill them all. They are neither trustworthy nor are they peers with the government. They are the equivalent of pirates. Do what you can to save the civilians but kill every last one of them. If you cant, locate their families and hold them hostage.

I know that sounds brutal. But blowing up buses filled with children is brutal. Setting off bombs in public places is brutal. the LTTE volunteered, the children didnt.

May 16, 2009 - 6:43 pm 7. Lifeofthemind:

The bad news is that because of the wholly unnecessary coddling of LTTE terrorists by the West the government of Sri Lanka has found other patrons. We could not support destroying the Tigers because they were supported on occasion by India and the Indians are saintly, a movie said so. Also destroying the Tigers would set a bad precedent regarding other Marxist mass murdering terrorists, such as the Palestinians and their supporters in places like Pakistan, who are engaged in low level war with India, who are on the other side of the Sri Lankan conflict. At this point it is all to complicated for Western journalists or diplomats to follow and they adjourn for a liquid lunch.

The other patrons the Sri Lankan government turned to are the Chinese. They are building a major seaport in the country that will go nicely with the one they have built in Pakistan. While we dither and lose all influence over the actors and shove our military into the back of beyond the Chinese are locking up the Indian Ocean.

Surprise.

May 16, 2009 - 6:56 pm 8. JewishOdysseus:

Some interesting points in the Times story:

Until earlier this year, the Tigers ran what was essentially a mini-state in the north of the country, with its own arsenal of tanks, small planes, ships and a civilian police force.

[a protected refuge for the insurgents]

Most of that weaponry, which once made the LTTE one of the most feared and disciplined insurgent groups in the world, is now gone, destroyed in the months since the breakdown of a ceasefire in January 2008.

Since then the Sri Lankan army has relentlessly pursued a massive offensive that has pushed the Tamil Tigers to their tiny last redoubt and, according to United Nations figures, killed 7,000 civilians and wounded 16,700.

In a pincer movement early yesterday, the 58th and 59th divisions of the Sri Lankan army battled their way from the north and south to meet at the village of Vellamullivaikkal on a beach of white sand, cutting off the Tamil Tigers from their last escape route across the Indian Ocean. It was the first time in decades – almost since the Tamil revolt began in 1983 – that the entire coast of the island, a former British colony, had been controlled by its government.

[remember, "YOU CANNOT DEFEAT GUERILLAS MILITARILY...Right?]

Since January 2008 when the peace process broke down, the Sri Lankan government decided to go for an all-out military victory over the rebels. It was something that no government had achieved since the Tamil Tigers began their military insurrection in 1983, after years of persecution of the Tamil ethnic minority.

[Amazing how a determined plan achieves in 16 months what 25 years of "negotiations" and unhelpful "diplomacy" could not. Said achievement being the liquidation of a nasty Red/ethnic terrorist band...]

May 16, 2009 - 7:18 pm 9. Thrasymachus:

“The Evil Dead” was Sam Raimi’s first film (financed by a syndicate of dentists) and is both a valentine to and an excellent exposition of the horror genre. For those of you not fans, the horror movie has a form as strict as that of a sonnet, yet within this form offers wide opportunity for creativity.

Ash (Bruce Campbell) is trapped in a cabin in the Kentucky woods by a horde of zombie skeletons that want to, as they repeatedly tell him, “Swallow your soul!” Fortunately for Ash he has the Book of the Dead (covered in human skin) and an audio recording left by a scientist who had been researching the zombies, which tell him that the secret to defeating the zombies is “complete and total dismemberment.”

Got that? Say it to yourself several times in a deep, solemn voice- “Complete and total dismemberment.” Because the thing people in horror movies forget, at the end when they’re all crying and hugging, is the zombie has not been completely and totally dismembered, and he pops up and starts stabbing people again.

I recommend you see this movie if you haven’t already. I won’t spoil it for you but if you think Bruce Campbell is going to take any crap from a bunch of skeletal zombies you’re seriously mistaken.

I would hope in Sri Lanka they have seen “The Evil Dead.” I’m afraid though they will bring in an expert from the UN who has read or maybe even written many thick books on negotiation and never seen even one horror movie. In a horror movie the UN mediator, being the dumb guy with the big mouth, would get killed first (one of those ironclad rules) but in real life he will just totally screw things up and then fly first class back to Geneva.

May 16, 2009 - 8:18 pm 10. Morton Doodslag:

Sounds a bit brutal, but who will miss them really? The tigers have well served the moral relativists of the world who like to use them as proof that terrorism is not only a “Muslim thing”. Populations which employ Islam-style terror must be ruthlessly sidelined, as Sri Lanka finally is doing. good for them. I will not mourn if they pass completely from this veil of tears. They have done too much to make that veil tearful.

May 16, 2009 - 8:18 pm 11. Anodyne:

“The notion that the Sri Lankan government should allow the Tigers, trapped in a small pocket, to survive so that they might have someone to negotiate with, is an interesting demonstration of the “Partners for Peace” at-all-costs concept.”

It’s the notion that negotiation is important above all else, the sick idea (in the context of war) that the “journey” is more important than the “destination”.

“But that historical battle has resonance because the Imperial Japanese forces, like the Tamil Tigers, were known for dying to the last man and not caring about who else did. The Japanese soldier went to his doom routinely and without fanfare; without commemorative videos, special checks from Saddam Hussin or blood curdling declarations. Your Imperial soldier simply fought to the last bullet and then committed suicide.”

Several months after 9/11 I got into a bit of an argument with a pair of co-workers. I argued that if it were possible to subdue Imperial Japan, subduing Al Qaeda should also be possible. I was told that such wasn’t the case, that important differences (e.g., “stateless-ness”, jihad, etc.) between Al Qaeda and Imperial Japan made Al Qaeda a tougher – maybe impossible – nut to crack. Nonsense. It’s all a matter of willpower given the possession of an adequate nutcracker – ask the Tamil Tigers. Well, unless they’re somehow “saved by the bell”.

On a personal note, I’m very horrified and sorry to hear the details of Japanese atrocities during the Battle of Manila (as I was when I first heard of the Rape of Nanking). That the Japanese weren’t across the board rigid in regards to wartime “honor suicide” is evidenced by the existence of my wife, whose grandfather was allowed by his commanding officer to opt out of a “tokkotai” mission and return to Japan. I’ve a wonderful wife and a pair of darling little girls due to luck that rode on the back of an anomaly.

May 16, 2009 - 8:36 pm 12. E. Nigma:

Decisively defeating an insurgency like the Tamil Tigers would certainly put a bruise on certain “post-modern” analysis. Perhaps that is the point, after all. With post-modernism, there are no true “right or wrongs”, just different points of view.
We have to understand their point of view, I guess. More important than victory or defeat.

War is always a tragedy, no matter who it is inflicted on, or who eventually wins or loses. The point is to get it over and put an end to it, not drag it out interminably with pointless “negotiations”.

As a boy, I read both “They Were Expendable” and “American Guerilla in the Philipines”, two of many books that my late grandmother bought in WWII to support War Bond sales. That was my father’s war, the Pacific War against the Japanese. And although almost all the Japanese I have ever know were extremely nice and intelligent people, that war was pretty horrific. I guess we just weren’t “post modern” enough to understand the Japanese point of view.
Which I guess explains Nanking, Manilla, the Bataan Death March, Kamikazis and a lot of other atrocities comitted by the Imperial Japanese Army. We just didn’t understand them in the proper post-modern state of mind.

May 16, 2009 - 9:06 pm 13. JJRedfan:

The common (translation: “dumb as a sack of used diapers”) wisdom that you cannot defeat guerillas militarily has NEVER been true.

The truth is that governments and civilian populations tormented by guerilla insurgencies have almost universally had to select from among the choices of
(a) negotiating with the guerillas – a solution unlikely to lead to a satisfactory resolution for anyone but the guerillas -
(b) tolerating a constant low level of terrorist carnage while waging a prolonged low-level military campaign – maybe sustainable military costs, but likely to result in a steady civilian casualty list – or
(c) mounting an expensive but comprehensive military offensive designed to utterly crush the guerilla insurgency in a finite period.

Even with the examples of Jihadist fanatics around the world, option (c) has seemed too extreme for most rational people.

We keep trying to convince ourselves that no enemy could have values so completely the opposite of our own.

No rational aggressor – we tell ourselves – would simply keep killing and maiming innocents to force an obnoxious regime on a much larger and antagonistic majority.

Especially when the majority is clearly civilized and liberal, inclined to live and let live, and tolerate opposing viewpoints.

Morons.

May 16, 2009 - 9:09 pm 14. Walt:

I’m not sure just who’s side I’m on
The Hindoo or the Buddhist
It seems that with the British gone
The Buddhists were the crudest
Do I remember at the start
The Sinhalese told Tamils
That from their land they’d have to part
With all their wives and camels
That Hinduism was no more
The Tamil tongue forbidden
And that there was much more in store
If Tamil culture hidden
Would rise to vex the Buddhist state
Who did not care that India
Might look askance at Tamil fate
Might wonder what got inta ya
And might reply to Buddhist war
On fellow Hindoo brothers
With something harsh to e’en the score
Though I’m sure they had their druthers
The Tamils fought for wife and farm
Religion and their culture
The freedom bird their mighty arm
But the bird became a vulture

May 16, 2009 - 9:32 pm 15. Scythianeedle:

JJRedfarn,

Look at just a couple of items from the List of “What Liberals Believe” – the “Catechism of the Delusional” – which embraces Islamic Jihadists as authentic third-world indegenes justifiably annoyed by the Colonial Imperial Capitalist USA. Liberals celebrate and support them in their struggles, just as they celebrate and support (for instance) Gay-Lesbian-Transgender victims of Western culture.

These dimbulbs never have been able to grasp that the Islamic Fundamentalists maim, torture, and execute all Gay – Lesbian – Transgender humans they can get their cloven extremities onto.

By helping the Muslim Fanatics spread Sharí’a into Western lands, they are guaranteeing the slaughter and extermination of Gays, Lesbians, and Transgendered persons they claim to embrace and support.

Hot-Zinc-Dipped Morons.

May 16, 2009 - 9:50 pm 16. wretchard:

The Battle of Manila produced strange stories, most of which are lost to historians, I fear. My grandfather (who was 55 in 1945 was part of a guerilla cell. The Kempetai came for him one night, which my mother remembers, led by a man with a sack over his head. He was taken to Fort Santiago and there hung upside down and beaten with paddles, whenever he wasn’t being burned with lighted cigarettes. Gramps thought he was a goner. Imagine his surprise when a Japanese Colonel came by and called out his name. It was an old pre-war Japanese friend of his who had been his partner in staking out manganese claims before the war up north. Although working as mining engineer, he had secretly been an officer in Japanese intelligence. The Japanese colonel had him cut down and released forthwith. My mother remembers how my grandpa came back, burned in places, black and blue mostly all over, but with no serious damage done. During the Battle of Manila, gramps shot a Japanese infantryman with a 1903 Springfield and spent the rest of the day giving him water to drink in that ruinous landscape. That must have been one of his finest hours and the memory forever cemented in my mind what a real man should be like. Brave but not cruel.

My mother was a little girl then and they lived not far from the Santo Tomas concentration camp, where some thousands of American civilians were interned. As the Battle of Manila approached, the rumor mills were electric with news of the advance of the First Cavalry. Yes, THE First Cavalary. In was in Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Bulacan. Then it was known to be just 30 miles north of the Pasig river. All that day Japanese units could be seen marching south over the river, where they would make their final stand. There was a knock on the door and a young Japanese Catholic chaplain, who had made it a habit to visit my mother’s family, was standing at the vestibule. He had a bolt of striped silk cloth which he gave my grandmother. He asked her to keep it. He had bought it for his mother in Japan. He added that he would not be needing it any longer. Then he turned and joined the flood of men crossing south to their last stand across the river.

When darkness fell that night the streets were entirely deserted. In the darkness my grandmother remembered hearing the sounds of Japanese infantrymen running south. They had a peculiar hobnailed boot which made a distinctive sound. Then nothing. It was all silent and dark. My mother’s entire family hid under the stairs behind a wooden table, the strongest part of the house. No one knew what was going to happen. Then they heard the deep rumble of motors and clatter of tracks. Instinctively they knew it was nothing Japanese. It was the First Cavalry. And in a few moments they heard — they were close enough to hear — the Shermans run down the gate of the concentration camp and the voices of thousands of American human skeletons crying out in sheer joy. It was a sound my mother said she would never forget.

Not all of the Japanese were inhuman. But war is what it is. Within days, the heavy howitzers were dug into fields near my mom’s old home, their muzzles raised toward the South, where the Japanese — and the chaplain who would never see his mother — awaited their fate. Here’s contemporaneous newsreel video of the largest urban battle of the Pacific War.

May 16, 2009 - 9:52 pm 17. whiskey:

It is extremely unlikely the Sri Lankan military forces or the government will listen. The Tamils have been unreliable from the start as “negotiating partners” and the government NOW has within it’s grasp a solution to the problem.

That most of the civilians will of course die is a plus for them. It means no Sea for the guerilla fish to swim in.

Indeed, if the AK-47 and land mines allowed guerillas to operate without threat of total destruction, the ability of even weak and disorganized militaries like the Sri Lankans, to use off-the-shelf UAVs, various other comm gear, and whatever air power they can cobble together in a “poor man’s combined arms” is impressive.

It offers the total crushing of most guerilla action by governments willing to let their military have a free hand and use off the shelf Western components in a combined arms way.

And let no one be mistaken, much of this victory has been won at hard cost by the bravery and sacrifice and discipline of the Sri Lankan soldiers, sailors, and air men. They may not be Western standard disciplined. But they are no less brave for that.

My bet — the Sri Lankans wipe out the Tamils to the last man, and ruthlessly pursue without mercy whatever else is scattered around. Tamils themselves getting the word to go along or “else.”

Attention is focused elsewhere. The Sri Lankans have patrons, the Chinese, who do not care about Human Rights. And the various NGOs are toothless, what do Sri Lankans care for them?

As a character in Eric Ambler’s “the Night Comers” aka “State of Siege” said, ‘Understanding is good. But it’s wisest to carry a revolver.’

May 16, 2009 - 9:54 pm 18. Molon Labe:

[Comment deleted by comment author]

May 17, 2009 - 1:45 am 19. Ivan:

As I have said before, the Tamil Tigers appeared fearsome precisely because the Sri Lankan Army was for a long time, a useless fighting force. In the 80’s they were better at looting and mass murder than at anything to do with real fighting. The LTTE, though murderers themselves were able to take full advantage of that. Now, the Sri Lankans have gotten their act together and from everything I hear they are a much more disciplined and humane force. As a result there are equally many Tamils rooting for a Sri Lankan victory. This victory though is possible only because India has kept a hands off approach on the Eelam problem, inspite of coming under tremendous pressure from the Tamils in Tamil Nadu to intervene. The Sri Lankans know what they owe India and they’ll bear that in mind when the Chinese or Pakistanis come a calling with their persistent schemes against India.

May 17, 2009 - 3:09 am 20. blogstrop:

It is ultimately kinder to finish a group like this completely than to allow a residual capability to rekindle.

May 17, 2009 - 3:17 am 21. mac:

LTTE? Kill them all, to the last man. No trials, no imprisonment, no notification of any sort. Most certainly no press. Just kill every last male above the age of five found in the insurgent area. These bastards have shown they’ll stop at nothing they can possibly do to get their way; they need to be shown that such all-in behavior earns a well-deserved genocidal response. Make the Tamils so fearful of government vengeance that the next Tamil idiot who talks about “Tiger glory” gets literally ripped apart by his own people. Then the fight will really be over.

If the remaining Tamils on Sri Lanka don’t like it, they can always pack their bags and get the hell out. The door’s open and no one is forcing them to stay.

Wretchard’s Three Conjectures are a lot tougher on Muslims than the above is on Tamils.

May 17, 2009 - 6:13 am 22. Bob Hawkins:

Winston Churchill once complained that his diplomats seemed to believe that half a loaf is not only better than none, it’s even better than the whole loaf.

Our diplomats believe that a peace treaty is better than peace.

May 17, 2009 - 6:47 am 23. JFSanders:

Wretchard,

Thanks for posting that link to the battle of Manila. My great uncle fought there.

I wonder about the ideology of the Tamil’s in the beginning. They were being prosecuted and oppressed for their religion? If so, then their initial struggle for independence was one of freedom? Or were they always about terrorism? I suppose I am trying to ask. Is this a battle between two unacceptable belligerents or was there a white hat and a black hat in the beginning?

May 17, 2009 - 7:20 am 24. Barry 0351:

If your enemy seeks death rather than surrender do not make the mistake of letting the enemy live.
Those who say they love death should be allowed to embrace it and die.

May 17, 2009 - 7:40 am 25. John Lynch:

It seems to me that the Sri Lankan government has found a way to fight a war in the 21st century. It requires very steadfast leadership from the civilian government, an ability to ignore Western criticism, an ability to continually bombard the media with your own version of events, and the conviction that cease fire is merely prolonging the war.

Sri Lanka was finally able to overcome asymmetric war by focusing on their strengths and neutralizing the natural advantages of the rebels. The government found other sources of aid outside the West (China and Pakistan), hardened itself to the inevitable demonization by Western media and diplomats and concentrated on winning the military struggle. This is a rare thing to find anymore.

The LTTE is a good example of what really drives rebellions. It’s not actual grievance. There are plenty of people on the planet more persecuted than the Tamils. It’s a leadership that’s utterly ruthless and willing to kill any opponents to their rule. That ruthlessness served them well until confronted with a government that was just as uncompromising.

The government won not by addressing the “root causes” of Tamil anger, or by negotiating a peace agreement with the “legitimate” leaders of the Tamils, but by destroying that leadership. The Tigers were only in charge by virtue of force and terror. That became increasingly evident as they cowered behind their imprisoned civilians.

One of the things that really bugs me about the international system is that anyone who can gather more than a thousand armed men becomes the legitimate voice of a people, solely because there are enough AK-47s at his command. At that level, it’s not elections or institutions or methods of government that matter, but simple force. This amazing hypocrisy in the international treatment of governments vs. rebels kills thousands of people every year. A government that controls violence is far superior to a rebel movement that offers nothing else, whatever it’s stated aims.

To be legitimate, rebels have to be able to win and they have to be accountable for their actions. An international community that defends the LTTE when it continues to fight after it’s clearly been defeated, and as it endangers the people it claims to represent, does no service to anyone. More people die as a result of this outlook.

May 17, 2009 - 7:57 am 26. Herb:

“At that level, it’s not elections or institutions or methods of government that matter, but simple force.”

At the risk of being repetitive, States only respond to force or the credible threat of force.

May 17, 2009 - 8:46 am 27. JFSanders:

“One of the things that really bugs me about the international system is that anyone who can gather more than a thousand armed men becomes the legitimate voice of a people, solely because there are enough AK-47s at his command. At that level, it’s not elections or institutions or methods of government that matter, but simple force.”

All government is FORCE. Force is the ability to project power. And all power is derived from the barrel of a GUN. It is said that the pen is mightier than the sword. This is only a partial truth and as such is a lie. The pen is a catalyst not a weapon. Only those men willing to back up their words with action are capable of wielding power.

If all of the above is accepted then it follows that only men of good morals are capable of good government. All others will end with tyranny of evil. This is something that was clearly understood by the founding fathers of the United States. Unfortunately it is something that cannot be inculcated into the next generation through genetics. It has to be taught. It has to be enforced. It has to be rigid and intolerant of modification. Lest it be mutated into extinction.

“To be legitimate, rebels have to be able to win and they have to be accountable for their actions.”

No, to be legitimate, it has to be founded upon the principles of the natural rights of man. All else leads to tyranny and oppression.

May 17, 2009 - 10:06 am 28. Mr. Frank:

The Japanese atrocities of WWII have largely gone down the memory hole. In a current U.S. college history textbook you are likely to find more extensive coverage of the Mai Lai massacre than of the Bataan death march. The former supports the paradigm of the U.S. as chief villain in the world.

May 17, 2009 - 12:54 pm 29. Scythianeedle:

Thank you, Mr. Frank.

The Leftish truth is that the Japanese are a non-white, third world people, which in that system translates to an unchallengeable authentic victim, incapable of racist motive or unjustifiable homicidal rage. Any action, however brutal or vicious, must be the undiluted product of – and completely appropriate response to – Colonial Capitalist oppression.

Ain’t it wonderful how a good hurtle to the LEFT makes a body accept tautologies as the basis for all logic? How does a Leftish ever manage to figure out something as subtle as how to use an elevator?

May 17, 2009 - 3:22 pm 30. Gringo:

Whiskey:
My bet — the Sri Lankans wipe out the Tamils to the last man, and ruthlessly pursue without mercy whatever else is scattered around. Tamils themselves getting the word to go along or “else.”

Sri Lanka has a population of 20 million, with an estimated 14% being Tamil. Round it to 3 million. So, the overwhelming majority of the Tamils are not in the remaining LTTE enclave of an estimated 10,000. Those 10,000 will probably die, but most likely from cyanide pills. (The Times article also gives a UN estimate of 30-70 thousand in the enclave, but as the enclave is now around a half square mile, the 10,000 figure seems more realistic.)

May 17, 2009 - 3:26 pm 31. steeple:

Wretchard, thanks for sharing your story and the newsreel footage above. I am so grateful that my family has not had to endure the suffering that yours did.

May 17, 2009 - 6:13 pm 32. Kinuachdrach:

The Sri Lankan government’s worst fear must be that some of the people in that last redoubt turn out to be Palestinian visitors. Then the media might suddenly take an interest in this war.

May 17, 2009 - 7:25 pm 33. buddy larsen:

Lessee, the war in Sri Lanka, under the peacemaking of Western diplomats, runs 25 years with no end in sight. Then the west cuts off military aid again at yet another crest of yet another wave of Human Rights posturing. But this time China steps on the heels of the departing west, and the following year the war is over.

Wonder which side (of the west/UN versus China) has the better grasp on the reality of human rights, say, in the eyes of Africans and South Americans, Mid-easterners and central Asians?

Is it better to lose 100,000 people in a year’s high-tempo combat and settle the issue and allow the people to create peace, or is it better to lose 100,000 people in 25 years of terrorism and low-tempo combat and never settle any issue nor ever allow the people to create peace –?

If you were a commander in a war and could pick either USA or PRC for your ally, ceteris paribus, which side would you pick, and which side would you most fear opposing?

May 20, 2009 - 12:18 am

Write a Comment

Name:	(required, displayed)
Email:	(required, not publicized)
URL:	(optional, displayed)
Comments:

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail