"WAR!!! What is it good for? Absolutely Nothing..."
"We don't like war, but we are not afraid of war either," Amarasinghe [leader of the JVP] said after the deal was sealed at the tightly-guarded Temple Trees official residence of the premier. "You can't bring peace by being afraid of war."
an exceprt from the article "Confused?" at Lanka Business Online.
Wow, such bravado, such courage... wonder who (or who's who) will be holding the guns when the shooting starts?
I guess, thats why the Jay Vee Pee went on their 'revolutionary sprees' back in the day huh? Maybe the hiatus in violence has been making them more antsy for more blood and gore... especially when it is not their own blood being spilled.
Does anyone find it funny how the President and the PM is at completely opposite poles regarding the whole situation? The President is trying to make sure P-TOMS goes ahead when her number two has already agreed to scrap it when he gets to the top seat. To top it all off, her party is SUPPORTING the candidacy of the PM for President. Hell, it might be the joke of the century eh? Small wonder that they are still working in the same parliament.
And yeah, if the LTTE is not accepting CIA (Colombo International Airport) as a venue to REVISIT the ceasefire, they will lie down and accept and REVISION of the ceasefire made by Marxists and Hardliners?
Everybody is quick to point out how Hard Line muslim clerics gather armies for jihad right? But what about Hard Liner nationalists who prolong war? Is what they do alright because they are not muslim and they have a political position to do so? Food for thought? Probably diarrhea for breakfast.
Cheers
posted by Komisiripala @ 12:47 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
it's all for better imo. if mahinda goes down so will the warmongers and the socalists for a loooong time. :-)
more united they are the better
What about that lovable Christian fundamentalist war monger Bush who has killed thousands and thousands of people in Iraq and Afghanistan? Yes, that guy of the "either you're with us or not" fame.
Why pick on Muslims when Christian leaders are killing way more people each day in their attempt to "spread democracy", and the facist version of Christianity - Evangelism - throughout the so-called "pagan" world?
I guess you can only blame the Muslims.
Heck if you want peace so bad in Sri Lanka why the fuck don't you advocate the establishment of Tamil Eelam?
If you don't want to hand out Tamil Eelam, a separate country, to the Tamil people of Sri Lanka you are nothing but a racist, rabid Sinhalese nationalist.
As you can see the definition of "extremist" changes according to where you lie on the political spectrum.
Hope you're smart enough to understand that, instead of acting like you're God's gift to the world.
Sad that you consider your own people working in the democratic mainstream your enemy, but have nothing to say about a facist organization running about killing people during a ceasefire and trying to create a separate country out of Sri Lankan territory.
Seems to me like you give more respect to a terrorist organization, than to political parties working within the Sri Lankan polity and standing for elections.
If the JVP is extremist, then what the fuck does that make the LTTE?
You scream and whine like a pig about two POLITICAL PARTIES signing an agreement but don't give a shit when the government signs an agreement with a terrorist organization?
WHAT THE FUCK?
Well, what do you suggest a government do after 30 years of war?
It was either stop the fighting or ending up like Angola, Somalia or any number of African countries where internicine warefare lead to the collapse of the state.
While the politician argue the merits of the ceasefire and the morality of talking to terrorists, people are voting with their feet.
Why does Sri Lanka continue to export people, boat people to Italy and Europe, workers to the middle East and skilled migrants to the UK and Australia?
Why has the Sri Lankan government increased the bonds to be put up by doctors going abroad ? Because many have taken to deserting in England.
Why leave friends, family, kith and kin if there was half a chance of a decent future at home?
So why the fuck not separate Sri Lanka into two countries Jack Point?
That will SURELY bring peace and prosperity for all and Sri Lanka will be the bestest ever country in the whole universe and we can all sing and dance in happiness and revel in the absolute peace and bliss that it would bring to the island.
Dear anonymous
A) if you don't have the guts to leave a name for me to address it to, I will address all of your kind.
When I said everyone is quick to point out Hard liner muslim clerics, I was not trying to offend and muslim people. I was trying to bring out the FUNDAMENTAL issue of how people think its wrong. True, Bush went to war... Did you also know that the country was behind him completely on Afghanistan coz thats where Osama was HQ'd? FYI that has become a mistake too coz now they are fighting a guerilla war there as well. Nobody wanted to go to Iraq, the American people DO NOT want to be there. And you are right, he is a war mongering christian (but not going on the basis of religion is he?)who has some bad foreign policy. No one likes him coz he is the bully on the block.
Sri Lanka is not about SInhalese, Tamils Muslims seperately. Sri Lanka is about ALL the people. We were all born in Sri Lanka regardless of race or religion. I am a rabid SRI LANKAN patriot who wants my country to do better, not worse. I want to see a Sri Lanka that is united and prosperous before I kick the bucket. People need to believe in the ideal that peace is a reality, and that it can take place.
My people working in the democratic mainstream towards a goal that benefits the country I can respect, and I will support with everything I have, but when people USE the political arena to further their own agendas at the cost of the country and all its people, I have a problem with it. Democracy is not abusing the power people entrusted in you. Democracy is fulfilling the dream you weave for the people.
The LTTE are not extremists... they are TERRORISTS. Thats what the JVP was BEFORE they became a political force. We do not have the military capacity to eradicate the ever present threat of terrorism... so fight the SMARTER war.
Whoever you are, you don't know your history, for over 120 years we fought with the Brits to kick them out and failed. DS Senanayake and Co fought the SMART war and got the independence.
Besides, who really WINS a war? When people die, EVERYBODY loses.
Well whaddaya know you finally said something smart!
What you need to realize is that the JVP deserves faaaaaaaar more respect than the LTTE for joining mainstream politics and standing for election inseated of running around like the facist LTTE killing people left and right.
In a democracy political alliances are made between parties - that's the way it works in the electoral system we have in Sri Lanka and there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG in the SLFP and JVP striking a deal.
If you or anyone has a problem with two democratic parties working in the political mainstream striking a deal, you should be shouting and screaming and wailing and ranting if the government signs an agreement with a terrorist organization that is working outside the Sri Lankan polity and trying to create a separate state out of Sri Lankan territory.
A lot of people like ranting and raving against the JVP but are strangely quiet about the fucking facist LTTE that is TO THIS DATE killing people in what is SUPPOSED to be a ceasfire. Fuck, as I speak another Muslim has been killed - Mohammad Razeek in Vavuniya. But oh no, lets fucking rant and rave about the JVP instead!
Enough with this double faced bullshit. If people can't fucking respect political parties working WITHIN the Sri Lankan polity and standing for election, but can afford all the niceties towards the LTTE, they really need to pull their head outa their ass.
Maybe it's true - violence and murder is what gets you respect in Sri Lanka.
I guess the JVP should get back to its killing spree because then if it signs an agreement with the government people will be throwing flowers into the air, the NGOs will be gushing with happiness and respect and adoration and NO ONE will be calling them "extremist"
Dear anonymous,
If you insist on being filthy mouthed jackal on my blog, please have some self-dignity and leave a name. If I wanted to hear an asshole speak, I would fart.
If you read my earlier blog, I ask why the JVP wants to DENY the LTTE a political front and therefore a POSSIBLE resolution to the war. Make up your mind whoever you are about what you want. Do you want war or do you want a political resolution.
As for whats wrong with any deal struck between political parties, you are right, absolutely nothing. Thats the way the world works. BUT, if you bothered to read the text of the agreement, you will find that this agreement does NOT further the interests of Sri Lanka. It basically assures support for continued power and in exchange, the progress made so far will be down in the shitter. Please do some research before you defend your marxist kin.
I don't advocate a seperate state, Federalism is a maybe. I am sorry if you lost a loved one in the war... but war needs to be stopped to prevent other people losing loved ones and going through the same thing in the future.
As for being the bigger person in any arena, think about this. If GOSL retaliated in kind everytime LTTE went and did something, the credibility of SL in general will go down and we will become what? GOSL is the GOVERNMENT. They HAVE to play by the rules even though bad guys won't.
If all you can do is to go online to find a blog that pisses you off and you need to curse copiously please refrain from entering this INTELLIGENT conversation. If you have something to say, try to be DECENT about how you say it (even if its hard) and if you can't, don't. You accuse me of whining and wailing? What are you doing mate? Hollering and Yodelling for all your worth.
cheers
My point is what do you do when you have a long running insurgency?
My father was sent to Jaffna in 1974. The 'war' was a joke then. The rest of our family visited him at the Palaly camp and toured Jaffna-no sight or sound of the enemy.
He was serving in Mannar in 1980 when the LTTE (or perhaps it was some other group-there were several at the time) killed the first policeman there. How did they do it? They rode up on a bicycle; they had to put a pistol to his back (because they could not even shoot straight from a distance!) and shot him. The war was still a joke. I visited him at camp in Mannar, again, not a sign of trouble, traveled all over the town.
In July 1983, thirteen soldiers were killed in a landmine. This was the single largest loss of life in the conflict. It just so happened that the jeeps were overloaded-the Tigers that did it were not anywhere in sight.
In July 2001 - the Colombo airport was attacked, and thirteen aircraft were destroyed.
What the hell happened between 1983 (the largest attack upto that time) and 2001 (the largest attack before the CFA)?
Military history records only one instance where a guerilla war was one- the British Campaign in Malaya in 1957. And how was it won? By a hearts and minds campaign. The population was won over and they betrayed the insurgents who were rounded up. No conventional army has ever defeated a guerilla force by military means ever.
If you want an example of where military strategy can take you, you need to look no further than Israel's campaign against Hamas and the PLO. Despite massive superiority in weapons, manpower and technology, all bankrolled by the USA and a ruthless, well trained army fighting one of the cruelest campaigns, it has got them exactly nowhere.
No one is going to accuse Ariel Sharon of pulling his punches and what has it now come down to ? Building a wall to try to keep them out- and they still keep coming.
Lacking Israel's' resources (both in materials and money) and without its strong institutions (the judiciary and civil administration) there is real danger than continued fighting will take us to a failed state.
Does this sound far fetched?
Look at the following flaws in the system:
1. The judiciary is corrupt.
2. Parliamentarians are corrupt and have close links to the underworld.
3. The police and civil administration are also, to varying degrees corrupt.
The descent to failed state will go on the following path:
1. The underworld finances parliamentarians and provides them with manpower for protection and other work.
2. The underworld is supplied with trained, armed manpower in the form of deserters, now numbering 30,000+. As long as recruitment continues, desertion continues and swells the ranks of the underworld.(the soldiers who desert cannot go back to their villages-the army will get them if they do. They disappear into the underworld, which is well equipped to offer them a good life)
3. With MP's on the pocket of gangsters crime explodes, law and order breaks down.
4. The police are too fearful or too corrupt to act.
5. The judiciary is riddled through with corruption, even if the police act; they cannot get criminals behind bars-if they have political influence.
6. With things in such a state, investment dies, growth dies, businesses wither, and unemployment soars.
7. The government finds tax revenue dropping (with the economy down) and expenditure zooming (to fuel the ever growing war). Borrowing zooms up, inflations goes out of control, the currency drops.
8. The government cuts back on "non-essentials", infrastructure crumbles, health systems deteriorate, the economy stumbles even further.
Once you enter this vicious cycle, there is no end. Look at Angola where the vast diamond wealth eventually ended up funding ONLY a war? The government spent money on nothing else.
Look at Liberia, Somalia and countless other countries ruined by conflicts.
To be sure, it will take time, maybe 20 years maybe less but we are already on the rocky road to becoming just another failed state, just another banana republic.
They say those who forget history are condemned to relive it.
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