"Dayan himself, unlike others in government and the foreign service today, is open to serious and sustained questioning on a range of issues, including the war, as can be seen by the long comment threads on any one of his articles here."

Dayan's last comment above actually quite disproves that- he seems to have a better ability to talk about with whom he hobnobbed rather than backing up his statements with facts. He also made it quite clear that he "has no time" to engage with sustained questioning, such as defending his notion that Sudu Nelum, and not Ratwatte's incompetence, had ruined the war effort in the 1990s.

Anyway thanks for the opportunity to refute Dayan and not letting him get away with lies.

Don't be silly Wijepala, who I know and where I've known them is because of what I know and could bring to the table. And believe me I really have no time for this, since i do not know what your own credentials are , except that you have some axe to grind, which you are managing to do admirably well despite the chip on your shoulder.

Sabes,

This is jejune scholarship.

Dayan has published a number of articles on this site since July 2008 and all of them have been pro-war. Groundviews is the ONLY website where a senior diplomat of the Rajapakse administration can be interrogated. Further, Dayan himself, unlike others in government and the foreign service today, is open to serious and sustained questioning on a range of issues, including the war, as can be seen by the long comment threads on any one of his articles here.

If we believe in and are to promote peace through peaceful means, we must continuously engage with and be prepared to accept the merits of counter-arguments. Sadly, the pro-peace movement and the pro-war movement in Sri Lanka operate in self-referential spheres. Dayan's articles are published here to break that trend. His sustained engagement with interlocutors on this site is appreciated also for this reason.

It also says something that someone so reviled on the web as a representative of a "war mongering racist government" is able to communicate his ideas better than you.

Dayan Jayathilaka got you! I saw it coming when I saw your inteview with him on Groundviews when he said that people were asking what he was doing with Groundviews. He had a plan for you. Since the interview he pblished two articles on behalf of the war mongering racist government. Well you too have to survive in these pressured and difficult times!

We want to hear what you know, dayan, not who you know. That marks the difference between a serious academic and a slithering diplomat.

It seems that you and/or the moderator had a problem with the revelation on Gerry's loose tongue.

Gerry de Silva was the Army Commander, not the OOC in 1995, meaning that he had no direct role in liberating Jaffna. The OOC in Jaffna was Daluwatte, but the real leader behind the victories of Thunderstrike and Riviresa was none other than Janaka Perera commanding the 53rd Division. The 51st and 52nd Divisions by contrast were led by Gerry's cronies (who had not commanded brigades before) and therefore did not accomplish much.

Gerry was previously the eastern commander from 1990-2, where he allowed his demoralized troops to commit atrocities against Tamil civilians and sustain Karuna's efforts. A year after Lucky Algama took command (in 1992, following the killing of Kobbekaduwa), Karuna and his men were forced out. So much for the boy wonder of Sandhurst who never achieved an actual victory.

"Nothing gets past the FACT that Anuruddha went up to Jaffna:…"

Except for the FACTS that:
1) Anuruddha was the mastermind of the very poorly-conceived Op. Jayasikurui, that was characterized by linear, frontal tactics (along the A9 road) that allowed the Tigers to predict the govt's advance and prepare accordingly, leading to heavy casualties.
2) The soldiers' low morale was a result of poor training combined with negligence of the "home front," NOT Sudu Nelum as you claim (Gotabhaya had reversed this trend which went way back to Premadasa, if not earlier).
3) Heavy casualties + low morale = no recruitment, yet Anuruddha insisted on advancing, diverting troops from the east (and thus conceding the east to Karuna), and spreading the SLA thin to get crushed in Unceasing Waves III, eventually leading to the LTTE's invasion of Jaffna.

So you see Dayan, it was Anuruddha who paved the way for his own visit there in 2000.

I still have the minutes of the “committee” I was on in the early ‘90s, which met at Army hqrs, chaired by Gen Wanasinghe and attended by Gen Waidyaratne, Brig Balagalle (MI), DIG Zerny Wijesooriya (NIB), Brig Devinda Kalupahana (at the time based in Vavuniya). When a seminar, starring JN Dixit, Gen Kalkat, G. Parthasarthy jr and ex-RAW Deputy Chief Chandrasekharan was convened in Delhi to assess the history of the conflict including the LTTE’s failure to re-capture Jaffna in 2000, the Sri Lankan side was Gen Gerry de Silva, Air Vice Marshal Harry Goonetilleke, K Godage and myself. When in 2005, Hon Kadirgamar sent a small team to Islamabad as interlocutors of the top Institutes of Strategic and security studies, Gen Gerry, K Godage and I were on it. When Sir Adam Roberts, the great British scholar of International Relations and War, visited Sri Lanka at Hon Kadirgamar’s invitation, the latter placed me on every panel with him. This is just to remind Wijepala, that unless he has proof to the contrary he simply does not have the credentials to suggest that I desist from writing on matters military!

As for Gerry de Silva, you know that he was one of your dear old friend's Sivaram's informants, right?

Gerry was the Army Commander in 1995 and did not play a direct role in the liberation of Jaffna. That credit largely goes to Janaka Perera commanding the 53rd Division, who achieved success during Op. Thunderstrike & Riviresa whereas Op. Leap Forward (where Perera played no role) had failed. It is no coincidence that Janaka had been there for most of the greatest defeats of the LTTE after the 1st EPS battle (Weli Oya 1995, Jaffna 1995-6) as well as retrieving the situation (Jaffna 2000).

I have to say, despite your inadequate answers I have to praise you for not ducking the debate this time.