Tuesday, February 19, 2008

How to beat the living crap out of the Tigers - Essential reading for every patriot

So you want to wipe out the LTTE as fast as possible? You support our forces,You support our president. And even if the prices hit the sky you will grin and bear it as long as we are winning the war. You are ready to do your part to achieve victory and protect mother Lanka.

Welcome patriot! You have come to the right place. I am going to give you valuable inside information about the enemy. The LTTE. You can take it seriously or you can dismiss as utter nonsense but just don't tell anyone that I told you all this OK? because if Prabha hears that I am outing his secrets he will send a suicide bomber right to my place! I can really do without a suicide bomber!

Let's get straight to the point. How to beat them. Bomb them like crazy! Kill the buggers! Sink their ships! Shoot! Kill! Is that it? But wait! Aren't we doing this already? In fact we have been doing this for decades. You thought I was going to give you some new information. Of course that is exactly what I am going to do.

Know Your Enemy
Sun Tzu wasn't joking when he said "Know Your Enemy".Whether you are fighting one of the most ruthless terrorist group or just arguing with the 'Auto' driver who insists it is your fault after he has just hit the back of your parked car,this is a rule you should never forget. (In the case of the Auto driver he could be having connections with Mervin Silva in which case arguing with him could seriously damage your health and wellbeing.)

So to fight the LTTE effectively we should first know them. Of course you know them. They are a bunch of blood thirsty killers aren't they? No I didn't mean that. You should know their inner workings. What makes them strong and what their weaknesses are. In fact I am going to introduce you to the most powerful weapon that can be used against the LTTE. The one that makes Prabha nervous. In fact it is the only thing that Prabha can't handle. He can even handle the cyanide capsule that's hanging on his chest if it comes down to it. But he can't handle this thing. This thing will just destroy him and his whole group once and for all. And then there is no chance for a come back. They would be just gone.

Before I tell you what the weapon is , let me give you a hint. This weapon has actually been used against the LTTE recently and it almost destroyed them completely. But unfortunately, just before LTTE was about to collapse something funny happened and we stopped using this weapon. We just threw it away. So the LTTE is still alive although badly weakened by this secret weapon. Now we are fighting LTTE the hard way with old fashioned weapons. So I have to tell you what this secret weapon is.

Before I break the secret I will have to give you some background. First we need to understand some basic things about LTTE.

Three things that make the tigers tick

What is the primary difference between the LTTE and the Government forces? Of course Sri Lankan forces are much bigger in terms of men and materials. But there is a more fundamental difference that almost everyone seems to forget. For a young man joining the Sri Lankan forces it is a job. Of course you get a chance to 'protect your motherland' but still it is a job. He gets paid. It helps him support his family. And he has a life.

The LTTE is an army made up of volunteers. They are not paid. They are not allowed to have a life of their own.They are not usually allowed to visit their families.Their working conditions are much worse than that of Sri Lankan forces. So what makes them join? And what prevents them from leaving? Of course there is forced conscription of kids but it would be ridiculous to suggest that LTTE is just a bunch of under aged kids who are forced to join.

There are three things that drive young people towards LTTE and keeps them there. Anger,Frustration and a complete lack of alternatives!

All three of these are in good supply in the North and East only when there is war. You have to be very very angry and frustrated before you decide to blow yourself up just to kill a few 'enemies'. And life as an LTTE cadre is certainly not fun. Few people would trade in a normal peaceful life to become an LTTE cadre. But what if you don't have a life in the first place? No food,no education, no economy, no jobs so what do you do? You have nothing to lose by joining the LTTE. During the war young people in the North and East have very few options. Joining the LTTE is one of them.

During war brutal violence is unleashed against the whole civilian population. Sometimes it is 'collateral damage' as they call it. At other times it is soldiers angered by LTTE taking 'revenge' by killing civilians. Sometimes it is systematic state-sponsored hit squads walking into villages , taking all young men at gun point and kill them - execution style.(This is similar to the 'black cat' operations carried out in rural areas of Sri Lanka during the JVP time when many young men were kidnapped and murdered by hit squads) Of course you don't see any of these in your newspapers. That's why I am telling you these things!

So one way or the other a lot of innocent civilians get killed. And that annoys a lot of young people. Lots of angry young people coupled with the lack of normalcy in the North and East provide the ideal environment for the LTTE to survive and thrive.

If anyone takes away this anger and frustration from these men and women then they will start thinking about their lives and their future. Now suppose they are given some alternatives to joining the LTTE - A decent job, family friends and a life worth living - a life without fear of getting killed every minute. When that happens, it is the end of the LTTE.

Hitting the Tigers Hard
It almost happened during the ceasefire. Yes the destruction of the LTTE almost happened although none of you patriots were informed. In fact nobody outside the inner circles of LTTE were informed. But it is hard for the LTTE to hide certain things from the people living in LTTE controlled areas. Many of them were smart enough to see the near death experience that LTTE went through.

Before the ceasefire, there was only one thing that was happening in those regions. War. In other part of Sri Lanka war is just a part of your life. You hear about it in the news. You do get a few bombs every now and then but life goes on. But in the North and east war is your life. It is war, the whole war and nothing but the war. The economy grinds to a halt. Prices of food and other essential stuff go through the roof. The prices in other parts of Sri Lanka would seem pathetically low when you see how high prices get in the North and East during war. Of course you would hear about Tons of food being sent to the north every other day. But what they don't tell you is that most of it is actually supplies sent to the military camps in the area. Civilians always face shortage of food and medicine during war. And you have to live with the fact that your life can end any minute! Even if you don't join or support the LTTE or the armed forces.

But during the ceasefire things changed. As the bombing , shelling and other forms of killings stopped people got a taste of what normal life is like. Suddenly the North and East were a different place. People were happy. Nobody was worried about the next bomb falling on their head. Prices were getting unbelievably low. Almost as low as in other parts of the country. New businesses sprang up all over the place. Many displaced people came back to their houses they have abandoned many years ago and started clearing up the 'jungles' that have grown up around their houses. Businesses were doing much better. People were getting better jobs as more and more businesses were opening up during the peaceful period. Lots of 'tourists' (mostly Sri Lankan Tamils from abroad) were coming back in flocks boosting the local economy. Even the Sri Lankan soldiers who manned check points seemed happier. With their friendly smiling faces people started to forget that they used to be their worst nightmare during the war. Soldiers massacreing civilions had become a distant memory then. Even cinemas,which were closed for decades , opened again. The war was over. So people were ready for some fun and entertainment.

A large number of LTTE cadres wanted to go home and visit their families during the ceasefire. Under pressure, the LTTE had to relax it's rules. For the first time, they were allowed to have fun and visit their families.Although LTTE was controlling big portions of North and East, their fighters who were supposed to defend these territories had lost their will to fight. They had just had a taste of peace. As they got up from their bunkers and visited their friends enjoyed the peace they have never had before, they were seeing a different world. For many of those cadres (Those in their teens and early twenties) it was their first taste of what a normal life would look like, for they had never seen what life is like when there is no war.(There were other brief periods without fighting before, but after the eighties, they never lasted long enough to change life in the North and east.)

When life becomes worth living in the North and east it becomes a serious alternative to joining the LTTE. A large number of those cadres suddenly came across a radical idea - living a normal life! A record number of LTTE cadres left LTTE during this period. Initially the LTTE relaxed it's rules and let a number of it's cadres (especially those who have completed 10 years of 'service') leave. Large numbers of men and women left the group, got married and went abroad. And even younger cadres who hadn't completed their 10 years just 'ran away'. Many of those who went home to see their families never came back. They didn't want to go back to those bunkers again. Prabha and his top leaders then had to tighten the rules again. They suddenly stopped all cadres from leaving. "War could start any time, so we can't afford to let you go" they said. But already a large number of experienced cadres (including a large number of highly skilled sea tigers) had already left. And LTTE had to depend on kids recruited by force and men too old to leave the group and get a life.

When I hear people say 'LTTE uses the ceasefire to strengthen themselves' I laugh my head off. To anyone who understands the way LTTE works this is a joke. They are a war machine. They need war to survive. Peace is LTTE's worst enemy. When you look at it from outside it might seem like LTTE was doing well during the ceasefire. They made lots of money as 'tax' when people crossed their 'border'. They made millions of rupees each day. But it is nothing compared to what they got from their supporters abroad. But these supporters need a war before they send money to LTTE. They have to hear about Tamil people getting butchered by the Sri Lankan state. When there is peace, 'contributions from abroad' hit a record low. To the point that LTTE for the first time had to use some rather heavy handed tactics to collect money from Tamils living abroad. The strategy backfired as this angered a lot of Tamils and further eroded their support base oversees.

So the cadres are deserting, recruitment meant kidnapping under aged kids as nobody wanted to join, and money from abroad , which used to be a flood was reduced to a trickle. What more do you need to destroy the tigers? They were almost done!

Worse than the tigers
So LTTE was desperate to start the war. They tried their best to provoke the forces. And with Presidential elections around the corner they realized only Mahindha can save them. Imagine. patriots like yourself were lamenting that LTTE was using the ceasefire to strengthen themselves. Nothing could be further from the truth. They badly wanted Mahidha to come to power that they prevented Tamils from voting. And finally they got what they wanted. We had a chance to beat them without suffering any casualties. Without firing a single bullet. If we had used the weapon of peace we would have wiped LTTE out almost effortlessly. So many people who are now dead would have been alive. We could have prevented the deaths of so many soldiers and so many others included those students from DS who died in recent blasts.

It is still not too late to strike them down with peace. But ignorance is our biggest enemy. It is even worse than the tigers. There are a few people out there who know the truth. But most of us still believe Ranil is the traitor and Mahindha is our savior. Most of us still believe war is the only way.

There is a much better way. But are we ready for it? How many have to die before we choose peace - the ultimate weapon - to finish terrorism?

6 comments:

Jack Point said...

Good post. I've been saying this as well, but the Mahinda supporters find it hard to believe.


By the way, what are you doing in Afghanistan?

Anonymous said...

wow a very good argument sir/madame but one thing you have missed out is the issue of borders.. you clearly stated that the LTTE taxed civilians when croosing ther "borders"... my question to u is if they were allowed to continue with that and if Ranil was elected president what gurantee was there that he will not hvae faced the same situation with claymores and bombs... would he have been able to rally the troops to defend against a attack by the ltte... yes sum cadres ran away but what about the one who were allowed to go to norway and train on police duty, what about the countless commando training they recieved, what about the planes they have. and what about the ability to take anything inside there "territory" without anychecking...peace helped them regroup, rearm and retrain. the srilankan army is now in the hands of capable individuals who want to make its forces smarter and deadlier, commando units and gurila warfare is what the troops are mastering now and that is the edge they have against the LTTE... yes the ltte blocked the people from voting.. bt has any1 analysed the position that they would have been in if ranil won... would we have questioned the ltte then .? wouldnt we have let them go and the world community feel that the tamil people did not wish to take part in the democratic process as they are not part of this country .. wouldnt this have improved the say regarding there determination for a seperate state??? we know that rajapakse was not helped in any manner by its party... through some method he won by the slightes of majority.. the unp firmly belived in the hambantota district voting for ranil and sajith was the head there... that is waht ranil could not belive at the end of the day . . i do not wish to comment on the ali- koti givusama if there was any but i personally belive this may be the true picture that occured...... and this is the argument i have in this regard to your article which i respect highly
THANK YOU
j_ran@hotmail.com

Jack Point said...

Hey I thought i left a comment here - looks like it got eaten.

A pretty good post.

Mahinda's supporters will not agree but perhaps overtime they will come to realise the wisdom of your words.

human said...

Sorry about the delay in publishing your comments guys. I didn't check the last couple of days.

jack point: "By the way, what are you doing in Afghanistan?"

Sorry jack point! I am really not in Afghanistan. I just chose that country at random when opening this account. I can' say much about who I am or where I am because if some people get to know these details I could be killed. So I have to be a mystery person for now. Sorry!

I will post a reply to anonymous soon.

Jack Point said...

Anonymous,

the LTTE would have crumbled if the CFA had held. They were losing support, money and most importantly the most limited resource they had, the cadres.

People who grew up knowing nothing other than war suddely saw what had taken place in the SOuth. Jaffna and the other places are 20 years behind Colombo.

The Karuna split was the first sign of the breakup. Others would have followed.

This is what frightened Prabhakaran the most. While Ranil was delaying the settlement, the movement was crumbling from within.

This is why he ensured that Mahinda won by depreving the Tamils from voting. The Tigers can survive war, they can't survive peace.

The war, from teh GoSL's point of view is unwinnable-because the lack of money. It may be possible to take Wanni at a huge cost but GoSL cannot hold it - the cost is too high. Tigers will melt away and keep up guerilla attacks.

A small guerilla force can easily keep a large, well equipped army dancing around for ever. Just as the Palestinians.

human said...

Hi anonymous,
first of all thanks for leaving your comments. It is exactly people like yourself that I was hoping to reach.

I haven't answered your comments all this time because it took that much time to find the answers to your questions. Just joking. :) It was simply because I am so lazy and I kept postponing it. And jackpoints comments kind of woke me up! So finally here are the answers. Hope you still remember your questions though! :)

1)LTTE has been running a virtual state with borders. What if Ranil came to power and LTTE decided to fight him? Would he "would he have been able to rally the troops to defend against a attack by the ltte"

Answer: Of course. And he would have been more successful for a number of reasons.

He was seen as a peace maker willing to share power. So fighting him would have put the blame entirely on the LTTE from the world's point of view. So we would have had the full backing of all the countries. We don't have to depend on international bad-boys like China ,Pakistan and Iran. USA would have increased their military aid. (Now they have
stopped it)The EU wouldn't have imposed trade sanctions. So we will have plenty of backing and money to fight the war without making the poor population starve.

It would have been very difficult for the LTTE start the war during Ranil's time because Ranil plays the game really well. You may be thinking of the LTTE as just one Unit with Prabha having absolute control. But the LTTE has it's own peace faction and war faction. During times of peace as Ranil is likely to agree to some demands of the LTTE (Like Helicopters for transport ,temporary interim adminstration with some limited powers, Money for developing their region and temporary deals like the Sunami joint mechanism) the peace faction gains more weight and the war factions gets weaker,making it unlikely that LTTE would start a fight.I know it will be hard to beleive that LTTE has a peace faction. There is no formal faction. But some LTTE leaders (mostly political guys like Balasingam Tamil Chelval etc) enjoy more importance within the LTTE during times of peace. And some other guys (Like Pottu) Enjoy more prominance and recognotion during war. So naturally they tend to prefer war or peace depending on how it will affect them and their postion within the organization. When there is peace the balance of power changes a bit favouring the peace guys and there is always a shadow struggle between these factions for supremacy. To keep the peace, the peace guys have to convince the rest of the organizatoin that they are 'winning' during peace. But when the peace guys have nothing to show for a long time, the war guys naturaly take the upperhand. That is what has happened.

If the do start the fight while Ranil is in charge, the LTTE would have a hard time.As Ranil is the peace guy who is popular amoung Tamils, fighting him would mean the LTTE would lose the backing of the Tamil people living here and abroad rapidly.This alone would have almost destroyed the LTTE overnight. The LTTE are not stupid. They know this. That's why they didn't want Ranil to win.

But if they don't start the war the peace will continue to weaken their military capability as I have explained above. Cadres leave in large numbers. And there will be fewer and fewer people ready to blow themselves up as suicide bombers. So slowly the military might of the LTTE begins to crumble without even having to fire a single bullet. It is a slow process. But it is a a sure way of destroying the terrorist organization without a fight.

And as Jackpoint has mentioned when the common enemy,the Sri Lankan government and it's forces are not in the picture, internal differences become big. More and more LTTE memebers will begin to challenge their leaders and demand more autonomy and democracy within the group. As the peace continues more and more Karuna's will emerge as well. This is simply because the need to fight the Sri Lankan forces is something that unites the LTTE. When it is removed things change.

Lastly what do you mean "rally the troops to defend against a attack by the ltte"?

It is the same military that does the fighting no matter who is at the top. It is the same poor men from rural villages in Sri Lanka who fight and die. Ranil would have either avoided the war or won it with very little loss of life for the reasons I have given above.

2) You have said "..yes some cadres ran away.."

Answer:I know this is not a question but I am mention it because it is an understatement.

If it was just 'some cadres' then LTTE wouldn't have bothered changing the rules after so many years. Many of the most experienced and most valuable men and women left. And they left in large numbers.

3) Norway helped LTTE become stronger by giving them "police training"

Answer:I know most "patriots" often accuse Norway of siding with the LTTE. But you would be surprised to know that LTTE guys and their supporters really believed that Norway was siding with the the government!

But never mind about that.What is the big deal about this police training? Just think about this. Under Ranil LTTE cadres would have continued to leave in large numbers. The remaining ones would continue to lose their will to risk their lives(and fight). And the LTTE would lose most of it's supporters. But LTTE would still manage to hammer the Sri Lankan forces backed by the entire world because.. because.. about two dozen LTTE boys and girls got "police training"? Ha Ha!

4) "peace helped them regroup, rearm and retrain"

Answer:Come on! I know this is the silly idea lots of our people are believing. And I tried to dispel this myth by writing this post in the first place. But looks like I have failed miserably.

OK you don't have to take my work for it. Just try to remember what the strength was like just before they signed the peace stuff? They were smashing the Army in all directions. They even smashed the Air Base in Katunayaka. This was after a long period of war.

Now compare that to what they were like after a long period of peace. What Happened just after breaking the ceasefire agreement? They got hammered in mavil aaru, they got hammered in sampoor and then in muthur. They couldn't defend the East. It is only after many months of war that they managed to inflict heavy causalities on the army. And they are just beginning to strike back at the Navy as well. But just imagine what sea tigers were like before they singed the peace deal? Do you get it? Yes it is true that "peace helped them regroup, rearm and retrain" - only in the case of the Sri Lankan forces. Peace has an entirely different effect on the LTTE. Which I have tried to explain in my original post.

5)"..yes the ltte blocked the people from voting.. bt has any1 analysed the position that they would have been in if ranil won... would we have questioned the ltte then?"

Answer:I think if Ranil had won nobody would forget that the ltte tried to help Mahinda although without success. So anyone who has a brain will understand that Ranil was not really having any secret deal with the LTTE. That would improve his support among the Sinhalese who feared Ranil was a Sinhalese "Kottiya". That would have made him even Stronger politically. And he would have been able to share some power with the Tamils without looking like a traitor. That would have applied even more pressure on the tigers. They should then accept the offer or face a war where the odds are heavily against them.

6)Wouldn't we have let them go and the world community feel that the Tamil people did not wish to take part in the democratic process as they are not part of this country .. wouldn't this have improved the say regarding there determination for a separate state???

Answer:What makes you think so? Why do you think the world community should ignore the fact that the tigers prevented people from voting?

7)Through some method he won by the slightes of majority.. the unp firmly believed in the hambantota district voting for Ranil and Sajith was the head there... that is waht ranil could not believe at the end of the day . . i do not wish to comment on the ali- koti givusama if there was any but i personally belive this may be the true picture that occurred......

Answer:I am not sure I understand what you are trying to say here. OK UNP thought they would win Hamantota. But they were wrong. But does that change the fact the had the Tamils voted, Ranil would have easily beaten Mahinda?

Of course LTTE is a problem. But the question is what is the best way to fight them.

I feel, as I have tried to explain in my post and as Jackpoint has pointed out again in his comments, peace is the most effective weapon we have against the LTTE. With that weapon we can solve this problem once and for all without making such a lot of people die.

I think all the news Sinhala people get from newspapers TV and radio for all these years is often incomplete and inaccurate. Journalists don't have direct access to LTTE control areas so all the news they get is from the ministry of defense. The goverment also adjusts the news for political purpouses. As a result you get only one side of the story. And even that side is heavily distorted. Most of them don't see what is going on on the LTTE side at all. So no wonder most people think war is the only wat to end this mess. I think if you get the full accurate picture about the war including what is happening on the LTTE side, you would have a completely different openion about how to deal with the LTTE and the war. And I am just trying to show you other side of this story.

Please post your thoughts on my answers. I would really like to know your thoughts.