Group Captain Kumar Kirinde (SLAF, Retd)
Category Archives: military expenditure
Demonising the Pope: Pompeo and Murdoch Press in Devilish Politics
Tony Donaldson
A propaganda piece published in The Australian on 2 October 2020. depicted the Pope as an evil monster with horns, as if the CCP is controlling him
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1) China is evil 2) The Vatican have an agreement with China 3) Therefore, the Vatican and Pope is evil. This is a load of baloney .
David Blacker on the SL Army’s Land Warfare Campaign in 2006-09
The SL Army’s Land Warfare Campaign in 2006-09: Debating the Lines of Strategic Emphasis THREE: David Blacker’s Clarification
In a telephone conversation in June 2020 relating to the Sri Lankan armed forces successful military campaign on land against the formidable LTTE forces during Eelam War IV,[1] issues arose regarding the lines of strategic emphasis. As I was not familiar with one of the summary terms mentioned in this chat, I formulated a ‘QUESTION’ which I sent to several personnel with a military background.[2]
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, education, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, law of armed conflict, life stories, LTTE, military expenditure, military strategy, patriotism, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil Tiger fighters, unusual people, world events & processes
USA as World’s Policeman 1945-2020
An Incidental Point from Dr Cornel West’s Indictment of the US Administrations’ Internal Policing Programs
KEY Detail within Transcript: USA has 800 military bases worldwide; and has has carried out 211 interventions since 1945.
SEE video and transcript of yesterday’s interview with Dr Cornel West on the 7.30 Report on ABC in Australia = https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/dr-cornel-west-looks-at-the-unrest-in-the-united/12318386
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, historical interpretation, human rights, life stories, Middle Eastern Politics, military expenditure, military strategy, modernity & modernization, security, self-reflexivity, social justice, unusual people, war reportage, working class conditions, world events & processes
Colossal Kills on All Fronts in 1944/45, World War II
Michael Roberts
In venturing into reflections on VE Day commemorations, by pure chance I stumbled on You Tube reviews of the ways in which German POWs were dealt with in Britain during and after the war. This data base also provides partial information on the enormous loss of life on the various moments in the Western front as the Allied forces advanced on Germany after D Day in June 1944.
Hitler Germany’s greatest reach 1942
Filed under accountability, European history, Fascism, historical interpretation, Hitler, human rights, life stories, military expenditure, photography, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, trauma, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes, World War II
Dolphin Hotel as Army Quarantine Centre
News item, 7 May 2020, with this title “Army uses Hemas’ Dolphin Hotel as a fully dedicated quarantine centre”Hemas Holdings PLC controlled Club Hotel Dolphin, Waikkala, has completed its fifth successful week as a dedicated COVID-19 Quarantine Centre. All operating costs, during this time period, are being borne by the Hemas Group, and the Dolphin Hotel, in the interest of supporting the government, frontline healthcare workers and armed forces personnel.
Malinda and Shenali tilt at SOFA and MCC Schemes
Editor: I have not had the time to study the SOFA and MCC proposals or the several conflicting reports on this set of topics; while I have reservations about my own deciphering capacity on economic issues. An academic with a broad span of experience across several countries indicated to me this month that the discussions surrounding these two issues has been marked by writings that “[ignore] facts that are unfavorable to the case that is being made or willfully distorting facts or using outright lies”.
He added: : ‘Unfortunately, this kind of unacceptable commentary is now common practice the world over and that includes some people in the highest levels of US government and academia.”
To this caution I add Sam Samarasinghe’s[i] cautionary email note to me a few months back where he indicated that the USA’s governing order is complex and its various arms do not always work with one mind.[ii]
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, governance, Indian Ocean politics, landscape wondrous, military expenditure, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, Sri Lankan scoiety, the imaginary and the real, transport and communications, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, world events & processes
The Ceylon Army’s British Heritage
Jayantha Somasundaram, courtesy of THE CEYLANKAN, November 2019
Sri Lanka’s maritime areas were ceded to the British in 1796 and for the next one and a half centuries there was a British military presence on the Island. As a consequence the Ceylon Army which was established seventy years ago in October 1949 was heavily influenced by this British legacy.
In the early British years under a Lieutenant General, Britain stationed four regiments of infantry, two Ceylon Rifle Regiments, a regiment of the Royal Artillery, a regiment of the Royal Engineers and a troop of cavalry on the island. But after the rebellion in the former Kandyan Kingdom was put down in 1848 and for much of the next century of British rule, there was a more limited British military presence on the island. So by the turn of the twentieth century the British Army in Ceylon, now under the command of Brig Gen R.C.B. Lawrence, consisted of a battalion of infantry, a company of the Royal Artillery, a company of Ceylon and Mauritius Royal Artillery and details of the Royal Engineers and Royal Army Medical Corps. (Wright: 857) Continue reading
The Sri Lankan Army in Its First Decade, 1949-59
Jayantha Somasundaram, in Island, 10 October 2019, with this title “Sri Lanka Army At Seventy: Recalling The First Decade”
Under the terms of the Defence Agreement, signed in November 1947, between London and Colombo, a British officer, the Earl of Caithness was seconded, in 1948, as military advisor to the Government of Ceylon. During World War II, Brigadier James Roderick Sinclair, 19th Earl of Caithness CBE DSO, had led his regiment the Gordon Highlanders, through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and into Germany.
Earl of Caithness
Brigadier Caithness proposed to the Ceylon Government, that the soon-to-be formed Army consist of an infantry battalion, an artillery regiment, signal, supply, ordnance, electrical and mechanical, and medical units; a works services engineering detachment to maintain buildings, a military police section and a training depot. Such a modest military establishment would only require one per cent of total government expenditure, and its personnel would, initially be drawn from the Ceylon Defence Force (CDF), the volunteer Army that had existed since 1910.
Gota’s Role in Eelam War Victory: Peiris challenges Roberts
Gerald Peiris in Kandy to Michael Roberts in Adelaide, 20/21 May 2019
Here are my observations on two of your comments (reproduced below in brown) on Long’s article**
- So, Gotabaya was not the single decisive hand in shaping the outcome of Eelam War IV. But in support of some lines in the Stephen Long essay, I shall dwell on several of his special contributions within a separate essay. Moreover, the recent Easter Sunday attacks and subsequent tensions in Sri Lanka encourage me to endorse Stephen Long’s caustic account of the glaring shortcomings in the intelligence operations of the Yahapaalana government. That, ofcourse, is a conclusion that is widely shared.
- However, the Sri Lanka Army began to transform its infantry divisions from around 2001 with the development of the SIOT concept which encouraged operational planning from the frontline-upwards and sharpened soldier skills.[2] General Sarath Fonseka is one to whom this course of development can be attributed, but I speculate that there were others involved.
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, historical interpretation, law of armed conflict, life stories, LTTE, military expenditure, military strategy, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, war reportage, world events & processes
