Rules Of Engagement
Soldiers at Elephant Pass memorial
War is fundamentally people killing each other and occupying land. Even suicide terrorism seems to be a response to occupation, perceived or otherwise. Winning wars is basically occupying land and holding it, mainly by killing. The Sri Lankan model has been to do whatever necessary and deny everything. This resulted in 10 to 20,000 civilian deaths (no idea) and a stable end to war. The US counter-insurgency model is now to minimize use of artillery and air strikes. But they’re still not winning. And their soldiers are dying. This is causing grumbles, as reported in the New York Times.
The rules have shifted risks from Afghan civilians to Western combatants. They have earned praise in many circles, hailed as a much needed corrective to looser practices that since 2001 killed or maimed many Afghan civilians and undermined support for the American-led war.
But the new rules have also come with costs, including a perception now frequently heard among troops that the effort to limit risks to civilians has swung too far, and endangers the lives of Afghan and Western soldiers caught in firefights with insurgents who need not observe any rules at all.
And America is not really winning the war in Afghanistan. However, it should be noted that the Soviets killed almost a million Afghans and didn’t work either. There are obviously different tactics for different wars, and I would argue that war itself is generally abhorrent and tends to continue and justify itself. But it seems that UN approved wars may not really end.
I do think that justice tends to play out in the end and ruthless powers tend to collapse under their own bloody weight, but ruthlessness does seem the surest route to winning wars. The American wars are largely wars of choice and one questions why they’re having them at all, but this isn’t the US that would incinerate entire cities as in World War II. That’s a good thing, but it may mean that they’ll never win so decisively again.
Today on the 
Janith has updated 
This is highly dubious. Miss Travel is a travel/social networking site that connects ‘Generous’ and ‘Attractive’ travelers. To, like, travel together, I guess. It all seems a bit like arranged prostitution and trafficking. This is part of a broader online trend to connect rich men to younger, attractive women. Sites like 
Sri Lankan domestics never say anything, they just stop coming. My maid just stopped coming and when I finally pressed her she said I needed to get a washing machine. I was hoping to ride this one out, but I’ve run out of underwear and I have no choice. I finally caved and bought a washing machine, from 
“Even suicide terrorism seems to be a response to occupation, perceived or otherwise.”
This is the kind of innocent looking generalization that analysts come up with after the fact. That is not how suicide terrorism evolved in Sri Lanka.
hadn’t they already won decisively enough before they used the nukes? i think the Japs would have succumbed eventually with a bit more pressure
The latest in America is Generals fighting President and getting fired!
“War is fundamentally people killing each other and occupying land”.
Isn’t that why the GoSL opted for the military option?
The military option was easy because the vast majority of the people being killed were the minority Tamils. And occupation of Tamil lands. This is why GoSL chose the military option
When you have a racially biased government like the GoSL, no wonder the military option was the easiest for them. While the deaths of the poor rural sinhalese soldiers didn’t matter as much to the leaders of the GoSL as much as the spoils of war, ie: land, contracts, electoral advantages and revenge. only those who are alive are talking and attending gala parties, the tragedy of war.
Er, so you think you are not a Tamil racist?
I believe in equality and the truth, you can call it what you want but I’m standing for the truth and equality.
Media in SL mainly takes the sinhala side of things, hence when we try to bring up the Tamil side of things people may misunderstand. If SL’s ethnic conflict is a racist conflict then that’s what I will bring out. How do you explain the killing of, probably, 75,000 Tamil people in the last days of the conflict?
It is because, mostly, Tamil people will be the casualties that the military option became palatable to the sinhala government.
What about the rules of endearment?
Government deliberately targeted and killed more Sinhalese in JVP-1 and JVP-2 than all the Tamils killed by the Army. But there was hardly any protest from the international community about these killings, because that was supposed to protect the democracy we have.
JVP has moved on, Sri Lanka has moved on, but people like you are stuck in “Tamil history”.
In my view you sound like one of the delutional Tamil racists who write to Groundview. These people are stuck in a very special Tamil hell that they can’t escape from. But they want their children to live there as well.
So If you care about equality and truth, not just about your very special Tamilness, come out and help us fix this place.
You help break this country, and now help us put it back together. Bring all your friends as well.
That was for “muhunthan pillai” and his friends.
Dear I witness,
Thanks for your response.
Back during the 1971 insurrection of the JVP the GoSL didn’t have the weaponry to kill people on a mass scale as they do now. The casualty rate in the uprising of 1971 was around 15,000.
As for the casualty rate in the late 80′s insurrection, the GoSL figure is somewhere around 30,000 while other non-state organisations, like NGOs and rights groups, have stated 30,000 to 60,000.
But in the ethnic conflict up to 75,000 people are likely to have been killed in the Vanni during the last stages of the conflict in 2009. Before the last stages of the ethnic conflict the figure stood at around 70,000 for the entire conflict. This would mean around 145,000 people have died in the ethnic conflict. So as you can see from the above figures the ethnic conflict cost a lot more in casualties. This figure includes the LTTE killings as well, but the GoSL always had more fire power, especially with the Air force and artillery. Hence the GoSL likely did most of the damage.
There definitely would have been protests from international organisations like Amnesty international, etc, etc. Don’t forget modern communication facilities were not available, hence reach and coverage might have been a problem.
JVP hasn’t moved on, but their methods have. Sri Lanka also hasn’t really moved on, the scars are still evident, justice has not been served equally to all.
I’m sorry to hear that you consider me a racist. I can understand the misunderstanding my writings may have created. I’m not a racist but when you stand for the whole truth some may perceive that has racism. I believe in equality and justice for all. I call for action on the presidential commission which investigated the massacres of sinhalese in the JVP insurrection of the late eighties but also action on the atrocities of Tamils.
I am always ready to help fix the problems of this land. Unfortunately the GoSL needs to allow it! They are trying to conduct everything according to their wishes. Presidential Task Force has to approve all things done in Killinochchi, Mullaithivu districts and other affected areas
There is nothing special about my Tamilness. I was born a Tamil. I stand for the rights of all oppressed people. In Sri Lanka the Tamil people have been oppressed the most, hence I’m trying to bring out facts of that oppression. Sinhalese also have been oppressed and so have Muslims. But the Tamil case has seen the most amount of destruction.
The Sinhala political leadership helped to BREAK this country with their racist policies, such as, ‘sinhala only’. They must now allow us to help rebuild it. Not according to their racist policies but according to the wishes of the affected people. But the GoSL should not forget its role in the destruction of lives and property and must do its part.
Dear Mr Pillai,
I have issues with your estimate of 145,000 total Tamil deaths, including 75,000 in the last battle, but no point arguing here.
So you think Tamils were killed by the government because they were Tamils.
You also acknowledge government killed those Sinhalese JVP, up to 75,000 of them.
So you think government killed them because they were Sinhalese?
Even though numbers are not even the issue here, it would be interesting to see how many of those Tamil civilians were deliberately killed by Army (JVP were killed individually, as in one by one, not by accident, not as collateral damage).
#1. how many of those Tamil civilians killed by LTTE and other Tamil terrorist groups over 30 years.
#2 how many of those civilians were killed because LTTE decided to use them as a ‘human berm’ to protect their sorry asses from the Army during the final push
#3 how do you separate a dead civilian from a dead LTTE terrorist. Nobody seemed to know how many LTTE fighters were there, and how they looked like. LTTE used to sneake in suicidal fighters mixed with civilians, no prizes for guessing outcome.
I like to congratulate you for not being a Tamil racist. We need more people who can think like human beings first and whatever else second. But as for the ‘whole truth’ you want to promote I am not so sure that is either the “whole” or the “truth”, but I will leave that for now.
In any case, all of us who want to live in Sri Lanka wlcome your concern about Tamils. Even if you don’t care about the rest of us, you must show your love for the poor Tamils who were caught between rock and a hard place.
The best way to do that is to help them live their lives as they normally as they can. And that also means you should stop trying to take them to a pure-Tamil country (you know the one full of milk and honey minus the Sinhalese). If you still try to do that, that would be very bad of you.
It would also help if you can stop complaining about what happened in 1956 in a galaxy far far away.
Then, hopefully, we all can come back to 21st century, and start living in in 2010.
If we are in agreement, we might even be able to move forward from where we are now.