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Sri Lanka: The Decline Of The West
May 7, 2009: The army is advancing slowly against the LTTE fortifications in the four square kilometer no-fire zone. The LTTE has built bunkers (or, rather, forced their human shields to do most of the work), planted landmines and deployed a few suicide bombers, to make it costly for the army to get in and finish off the LTTE defenders. The army believes this will be done by the end of the month. The politicians want it done sooner, but the generals want to keep their casualties down.During their advance in the last few months, the army has captured over 100,000 rifles and pistols, over a million rounds of ammunition and over 30,000 landmines. There are also thousands of grenades, roadside bombs and mortar shells, plus tons of explosives, trucks, artillery and some armored vehicles. China has not been critical of how the government has fought the LTTE rebels, and has offered attractive economic deals, including direct aid. While Western nations have been quick to blame the Sri Lankan government for all manner of atrocities, and offer sanctuary to pro-LTTE Tamils, several other countries (like Iran, India, Libya, Russia, Pakistan and Vietnam) have done business with Sri Lanka, and not taken sides in the civil war. The Sinhalese majority in Sri Lanka is very bitter about this treatment by the West (which is seen as arrogant, self-righteous and gullible enough to fall for the LTTE propaganda.) This will have long term effects. Posted by: Steve White 2009-05-10 |
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