The Elements

Anyone can attest that the 4 known elements are essential to life. Earth, Wind, Fire, Water. (If you count Captain Planet, you need Heart too).

Earth - Every bloody war has been waged since the god knows when for this. Real estate, dirt, a place to live in peace.

Wind - Every politician in the world is full of it, the poor voters are the only ones who smell the wind.

Fire - The tool of every participant in any conflict, i.e fire = weapons, causing death and destruction to all those they claim to protect and represent

Water - The elixir of life. A need that circumvents any human law anywhere on the planet as it is a fundamental human right.

Heart - What everybody needs, but most people don't have.

I don't know what I started off to write about, but I just keep writing now on an interesting tangent.

In any seige like situation, the victor will be the one who controls the water. When the Egyptians invaded Mesopotamia, Babylon was put under seige. It was a traitor that led the pharoahs through the secret tunnel via the canal into the city. But even they did not block it, poison it. Oh yes, they raped and pillaged and did everything a victorious army back in the day (or even now in some cases) did. But at any time, poisoning (or effectively preventing access to water) was considered a crime against God - Egyptian, Christian or whoever. However, militarily it was an effective method of neutralizing an enemy. Historical use of 'Hydrowarfare' is listed here.

I believe that it is in the 'Hague Convention' that the following is listed in no uncertain terms (also listed at above link);

Protocol I (art. 54) prohibits, ‘whatever the motive’, the attacking, destroying, removing of ‘objects indispensable to the survival’ of civilian population, such as ‘drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works’.

All in all, I don't think anybody in their right mind needs a bunch of wise old men to get together to write up a document that tells us whats acceptable and whats not. neither do we need any script telling us whats right and whats wrong. Laws are there to punish perpetrators, but the upholding of social mores is an individual effort. What kind of example are the Tigers hoping to set by doing this? Encourage 'hydrowarfare' between individuals who have grievances with each other? "He owes me money and he is not paying so let me poison his well, or the village well for that matter".

There is a reason that Bio Weapons, Chem Weapons and Nukes are all classified as Weapons of Mass Destruction. American policy for example is this: if there is a Bio/Chem attack on the US, its response will be in kind - WMD. But since America 'does not have' Chem/Bio weapons, they will launch a nuke.

The dirty fact of the matter is, its all well and good for the Tigers to block the damn sluice gates and issue demands but a nation cannot retaliate in like manner for it is responsible for all citizens. Just because your dog bites you, you don't bite back - you can, but then your the bigger idiot,. The BBC and pretty much all the newslines I've been reading didn't pick up on this until the air raids started.

Then the headlines go "SL Air Force Conducts Air Raids in East" or "SL Offensive Intensifies". I guess as the tigers are not answerable to the people like an elected government is they don't care to give exact casualty figures either. So far, Army is 5 KIA, 8 Injured, LTTE reports 2 (Army reports LTTE at abt 35). "Heavy Casualties in Mavilaru" on BBC.

Also in the story the SLMM spokesperson 'Blamed both sides for fighting'. If by all accounts the situation was so dire as to require a military response the SLMM should have given an ultimatum to the Tigers instead of dropping to their knees to suck some Tiger Dick and accept all ultimatums received. Why is it that the GOSL (I don't care which one at this point) have to respond to every ultimatum but is not able to give some in return?

My prayers and best wishes to the brave sons of Sri Lanka enagaged in this fight for what is right. May the blessing of the Triple Gem, Bhagwan, Allah and the Holy Trinity be upon all of you.

My deepest sympathies for those who have lost their lives for the cause of righteous justice. May you attain Nirvana.

I apologize to any reader who is offended by the language but now this war has been brought into the homes of the people who are just tyring to eke out a living. Thats where my sympathy lies.

P.S: To hell with CBNSAT.