American Power, American Shambles — Lanka 2009

Two Insights from the Sri Lankan scenario in early 2009 during the last stages of  Eelam War IV which I re-discovered in going through an essay based on a Skype chat with Gotabaya Rajapaksa and investigation among the US Embassy despatches to Washington open to the world via Wikieaks

A = Ambassador Robert Blake to Gota: “We are Americans. We will teach them a lesson and even bomb them if need be.” –– in response to Gotabaya’s scepticism about the Tiger leadership’s readiness to accept international intervention to save the threatened civilian  population in the remnant LTTE stronghold on the coastal shores abutting Nandikadal Lagoon [in the course of an amiable conversation on either the 11th or 15th April 2009] 

B = Blake had told Foreign Minister Bogollagama  “that it was common knowledge the Tamil Tigers won’t let the civilians go. A better alternative, he said, would be for the GSL to allow a UN envoy to go in to the safe zone during the pause to talk directly to LTTE supremo Prabhakaran about terms for letting the civilians go and surrender of those LTTE cadres still in the safe zone” (Blake’s report to Washington).

FOR THE FULL CONTEXT please visit this original essay presented on 8th March 2016: “Speaking to Gotabaya-I: Plans Afoot in 2009 to Rescue the Tiger Leadership“. NOTE my conclusion: “The vast majority of activists, including high-profile commissioners,** making assessments about the war have been desk intellectuals and drawing room lawyers without first-hand or even vicarious comprehension of warfare and its intricacies.”…. with ** referring to UN officials such as Vijay Nambiar who served as extensions of US foreign policy

 Pirapāharan , Anton Balasingham, KP and Sorna I at Mullaitivu during the LTTE’s halcyon days, circa 2001