“A Senior Infantry Officer” wrote a letter to this newspaper under the title, “To whom does the success belong?” (Sunday Times, November 8), with reference to the country’s victory over the LTTE.
Certain uniformed persons are claiming credit, even as much as 95 per cent, for the country’s victory in the civil war. The ending to the conflict was the result of a combination of factors, not just one factor.
An Army inexperienced in battle had to face a highly motivated army of insurgents that was trained on Indian soil, during the hegemonic leadership of Indira Gandhi. The Sri Lankan government, led by J. R. Jayewardene, reoriented our armed forces and put General Cyril Ranatunga in command. All this done while our country had to face the hostility of many countries, and India’s in particular.
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| Lto R: Generals de Gaulle and
Eisenhower |
The mood of the Southern polity became as tough as that in the North. The Vadamaaratchi Operation was progressing well, and victory seemed imminent, when J. R. Jayewardene was forced to call the operation off because of an invasion threat from India. It would have been foolhardy to take on the world’s fourth most powerful army. This begs the question what the present President would or could have done at that point in time, in those same circumstances, had he been at the helm.
Thirty years is a long time, long enough to wear out anyone waging a war. The Tamils had had enough of the blood-letting for an elusive Eelam. They could see no light at the end of the tunnel; meanwhile their youth were being decimated and their children being sacrificed by the thousands at the altar of the Thalavar god.
In the South, sobriety ruled. Even the worst provocations, such as the attack on the hallowed precints of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy, did not result in a backlash.
Meanwhile, neighbour India had learnt a bitter lesson for creating Frankenstein monsters, just as the United States has realised the cost of utilising Osama Bin Laden and Sadam Hussein to achieve its goals. Now that the war is over, India has disowned the monster it created, the LTTE, to Sri Lanka’s advantage.
Our political scene is teeming with people vying for leadership. What might have been good enough during the prosecution of the war may not be good enough during the peace that now follows.
Sir Winston Churchill was dumped by the British electorate at the end of World War II because his usefulness was deemed over. Whether good army commanders make good statesmen is a moot point. The Generals de Gaulle and Eisenhower may be exceptions.
But on one point we can agree with the Senior Infantry Officer: It was a team effort that won the war, with no single element throwing a spanner in the works of another.
G. K. W. Weeraratne,
Hokandara |
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