July usually passes me by without too much notice, beyond the vague worry that there might be a Tiger attack on Colombo, and a few flashbacks to that weekend in 1983. But this time it’s been a bit different. I’ve found myself reliving that day a lot more this year. It isn’t the fact that this is the 25th anniversary of the carnage which most people see as the starting point of our war, though that has been the focus of a lot of attention. What did it was a phone call a couple of weeks ago.

My mobile rang with an unfamiliar number, and an equally unidentifiable male voice asked for me. When I confirmed that it was indeed yours …

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The banning in Canada last week of the World Tamil Movement (WTM) and the taking down in London of Tharisanam TV a couple of days ago, hit the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) a double punch that largely went unnoticed in Sri Lanka.

Last week’s listing of the WTM as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government, caused a furor in that country that went beyond the usual GoSL-LTTE split. The decision by Ottawa sparked as much debate on both sides of the Liberal-Conservative constituencies as can be seen on any Sri Lankan blog. Many of the voices remain supremely ignorant of the war in Sri Lanka, as well as the greater Tamil nationalist struggle, with much of the …

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A recent post by Indi on the correctness of allowing people with foreign interests to hold high military office got me thinking about the whole private military contract business. Coincidentally, I had just finished reading The Road to Hell by Brian Geddes, a British mercenary (or private military contractor as they are now called) in Iraq.Indi’s post basically pointed out that the SL Army commander, Gen Sarath Fonseka, the Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, and a few others who are US green card holders, cannot be trusted to hold such high positions as their loyalties could possibly be divided.

Regardless of whether Gota & Co are actually foreigners or not, I tend to think that nationality is beside the point when …

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It’s easy. You just lead them a little less. It’s an old joke, born in the Vietnam War, and first recorded by Michael Herr, though Kubrick made it famous with his portrait of the crazed US Marine door gunner in Full Metal Jacket. In layspeak, a shooter “leads” a running figure so that he’s aiming at where the target will be when the bullet reaches it. Women and children run slower than an adult male.

It’s not so funny anymore though, when we’re fighting a war in which the uniformed enemy often is a woman or a child. Earlier this week, a US military court sentenced Sgt Evan Vela, a 24-year-old Army sniper, to ten years imprisonment for killing an Iraqi …

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Terrorism is bad. OK. But how bad? And is it all bad? Or is it more like saying bacteria is bad — in other words, dependent on the situation?

First we need to look at what terrorism really is. Yes, it is the intent to cause terror, but it’s actual definition is widely accepted to be the intention of military groups to cause terror amongst a civil populace. Occasionally the definition is modified to include state military action against an enemy populace (eg: the RAF aircrew were referred to by the Germans in WW2 as “Terrorfliger” or terror flyers). However, when looked at analytically, terrorism is merely a means to an end, a weapon in conflict; usually (but not invariably) employed …

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Really, does Sri Lanka actually need a Minister of bloody Indigenous Medicine? Or a Minister of Special Projects (whatever that is). Has no one heard of parliamentary and ministerial secretaries — in other words, the Civil Service? The latter, while not quite the bastion of Sir Humphrey Appleby’s bureaucracy, should theoretically be able to handle the bulk of work areas currently awarded separate ministries. And probably much better than the politicians themselves. For example, is a former union leader the best choice as Minister of Sports and Public Relations?

I doubt that there was anyone in Sri Lanka today who wasn’t blown away by the number of cabinet apointments, and that’s not even counting the deputy ministers and other assorted cooks …

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Do they really? Everyone says they do; but I’m not convinced they do it anymore. Yes, I know they did it back in the ‘80s, and even in the early to mid-‘90s. But is it true today? They seem more like amphibious Tigers these days.           

Every expert on guerrilla warfare (armchair or not), will tell you that the fish (and therefore the Tigers) do indeed, need to swim in the sea of the population to survive. The LTTE certainly embraced this philosophy in the early ‘80s, when the waters were very nutritious. This isn’t a history lesson, and no one needs to be reminded that the Tamils of the Northern & Eastern Provinces almost wholeheartedly backed the LTTE, along with the …

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