I like this article by underdog, because it envelopes few of the comments I recently made here regarding the hypocrisy of the west! Jon Stewart puts it so sweetly as he always does. Dailyshow FTW!

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=227351&title=moral-kombat&byDate=true

Since GV comments system sometimes breaks long urls, a shorter version…

http://bit.ly/VniTl

Killing of humans are a relative crime. It’s absolute. You cannot justify this based on your ideologies.

At least the west shows some concern about civilian killings vs non by the Government nor the LTTE. And west doesn’t have white vans to silence who speaks against it nor calls them traitors and have to live in fear.

Coincidentally, on the Daily Show of the 13th of May 2009, the Ambassador of Pakistan to the US spoke of how they plan to win their war against a secessionist, non state, terroristic actor which controls the northern part of their country and uses the civilians there as “cannon fodder.”

He said that Zardari signed an ceasefire agreement with the Taliban, knowing they would break it and show the people in those areas and the world that they cannot be trusted. Then, they would engage in an all-out conventional war to defeat the Taliban militarily. The US military, government, President Obama and Hillary Clinton are “fully supportive”, he said, and have funnelled in US$3 billion into it.

In Sri Lanka’s war, a ceasefire agreement was signed in 2001. The LTTE violated it countless times till, in 2008, the Sri Lankan government unilaterally withdrew. The international community was in agreement with this – an EU delegation which visited in late 2008 found that the government was justified in doing so. Then Sri Lanka began a conventional campaign, using air raids and shelling to reduce military casualties. As the LTTE had scattered itself amongst the civilian population, this has caused significant civilian displacement, injury and casualties. No independent media were allowed to report on it which has been another point of contention, internationally.

This suffering was increased when the LTTE, losing ground militarily, forcefully moved Tamil civilians at gunpoint further into their ever shrinking zone of control. The LTTE also refused to let these civilians leave, killing and injuring those that tried to escape.

The war is now over and the LTTE has lost. But the US government is still a significant critic of these tactics, threatening sanctions and war crimes investigations.

Yet, in Pakistan, air and missile attacks into residential areas are occurring, some of which are by the US Army. No casualty/injury rates are available for the current phase of the war but, given the 2% hit rate of US Army drones in this NYT article and the Pakistani claim of 1000 militant deaths so far, the numbers will be significant. Over 1 million people are displaced. Independent journalism is not allowed in the war zone.

The LTTE invented suicide bombing which the Taliban emulated. Now it seems that Pakistan is following the methodology that Sri Lanka invented for militarily defeating such non state actors. But the US is applauding and supporting Pakistan while detracting and sanctioning Sri Lanka. Cognitive dissonance, thy name is America!

The civilians in the North are caught between two sides who have deliberately chosen war as a means of resolving conflict – somehow that seems to have higher moral ground for human rights activists.and western governments for intervention than killing people systematically by denying them rights to food and medicine, decade after decade.

As an advocate for a federal solution in Sri Lanka, I fully agree with Underdog’s assessment. However, where is the leadership and consitutuency for peaceful co-existence, on both the Tamil and Sinhalese sides? The Sri Lanka polity is poloarised than ever before. That in my view, is the ground reality. The question is where do we move from here, no matter whether this war is “won” or not? Ultimately, the international community certainly cannot force a lasting solution down our throats.

@ Vinod: I don’t think we or the West have targeted civilians intentionally, but war kills civilians even if we hope (or propagandize) for 0 casualties. So perhaps everyone should be less eager to resort to war?

Granted, the Air Force probably caused a great many civilian casualties. However, it had been using Israeli-built Kfirs which are notoriously useless for ground attack. Indeed the number of friendly fire incidents appear to be pretty high from anecdotal evidence.

The Government forces are not equipped with the ‘smart’ weapons which the USA deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan to target deliberately the civilians of those countries in accordance with the dictates of ‘Shock and Awe’.

It should be recognised, too, that (except in the air) the LTTE has from day one been better equipped than the Government forces. The LTTE was the first to introduce landmines, AK-47 assault rifles, night-vision equipment, MBRLs, etc. Even at present, fighter-to-fighter it has better firepower than the Army, which is why the latter required odds of 12:1 in order to defeat it. This is in stark contrast to the Americans who deploy firepower unimaginable by the populations they are fighting.

The Army now is a different kettle of fish from the disorganised racist rabble which was launched against the Tamil people by JR Jayawardene and against the Sinhalese youth by R Premadasa. Consider that the number of casualties among the Tamil population in the fifteen years since 1994 has been about half that of the eleven years before.

It does not appear that the Sri Lanka Army’s strategy includes the deliberate targeting of civilians, as is the case with Israel, which has targeted Palestinian civilians, as a matter of policy, since long before Plan Dalit in 1948.

What should be taken note of is the lengths to which the Americans and their ‘New Labour’ British lapdogs are willing to go to bring the Sri Lankan refugee issue to the UN etc. The casualties inflicted by the Israelis in Gaza are suddenly open to discussion as quid pro quo. It is impossible to believe that the US and British Governments, which quite happily inflicted a million deaths on the Iraqi population, should have considered the humanitarian aspect at all. Ergo there is something else they are worried about.

It’s so sad that too many in this land just lip-sync their budhist heritage and teachings like “ahimsa” “tolerence” and “violence begets violence”. But they have never heard of, let alone even begun to understand the concepts of equality, civil liberty and freedom, concepts on which civilization in the west is grounded. These concepts are the reason why a man from a community which was treated as slaves not so long ago is now the leader of the most economically and militaraly powerful nation in the history of mankind.

The way I see it that pot has lived on a gas or electric burner, while this kettle in the traditional Sri Lankan style has been on the soot emitting wood fire. So this kettle will need lots more detergent.

That is hilarious…and telling. Thank you for sharing that. Btw, I just looked up the Robe–it was made in 1953, and you watched it in the Majestic. Suddenly I feel young again ! I hope to one day stand up for the rights of good people; alas, all I find is villains of varying degree, perpetrating villainy with the best of intentions.