Category Archives: military strategy

September 20, 2023 · 12:32 pm

Ranil confronted with UNFAIR Question

Fair Dinkum responding to an EMAIL CIRCULAR sent by Victor Melder, 20 September 2023 …..  bearing this You-Tube ………………

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGtxKRZNhXwcqdggGVBwdQpGTTj?projector=1

I gather some Sri Lankan sent it to him with the question, “Are you pro=Indian or pro Chinese?” which is an unfair question because it is framed in such a way as to create and reinforce division, and doesn’t allow for the possibility for one to be both, or to be neutral, or to consider the possibility that Sri Lanka should engage with both India and China when it is in their interests to do so, without interference.
I would say Sri Lankans should be pro-Sri Lanka and then at the next level down, regard India and China as partners, as SL should do with all countries.

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September 18, 2023 · 7:08 pm

USA’s “Global War on Terror” Following 9/11

Compiled by Gp Capt Kumar Kirinde, SLAF [retd]: “A global counter-terrorism military campaign initiated by the U.S. in 2001”  ……….. Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_terror, https://www.cia.gov/legacy/museum/exhibit/on-the-front-lines-cia-in-afghanistan/, ChatGPT, and Google Images … [with only some photographs 

Introduction:  ……  The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism”” (GWOT), is a global counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks and is also the most recent global conflict spanning multiple wars. The main targets of the campaign were militant Islamist and Salafi jihadist armed organisations such as al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and their international affiliates, which were waging military insurgencies to overthrow governments of various Muslim-majority countries. Other major targets included the Ba’athist regime in Iraq, which was deposed during an invasion in 2003, and various militant factions that fought during the ensuing insurgency

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September 2, 2023 · 12:30 am

Lançarote de Seixas and Madampe: A Portuguese Casado[i] in a Sinhalese Village

Chandra R. De Silva, refereed article originally pubd in Modern Ceylon Studies, Vol II/1, 1970, pp. 18-34.

At the end of the sixteenth century[ii] when the Portuguese came into possession of the south-western sea-board, Madampe proper, was a sizeable village inhabited by about a hundred families.[iii] Though situated some forty miles to the north of Colombo, the centre of Portuguese power and activity, Madampe was in some respects well located being within seven miles of the important port of Chilaw and within three miles of the sea, over which the Portuguese still had undisputed control.[iv] The village moreover, had twenty two minor villages attached to it, the whole forming the gabadagama[v] or royal demesne of Madampe, an area of approximately sixty square miles.

Statue of horse at Taniyavalla Devalaya, Madampe (constructed 1894) …… Photo from 2017

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August 30, 2023 · 2:29 am

Sri Lanka’s Topsy-Turvy Economy in the Last Decade

Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake*…. with her choice of title being “Sri Lanka Back as Donor Darling Ignores the BRICS” and a sub-title that runs thus “France’s Macron and the US Fish in the Indian Ocean …. presented here with highlights imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi 

Sri Lanka continues to swing wildly between being a ‘Donor Darling’ flooded with foreign ‘aid’ and ‘advisors’ on the one hand to a ‘bankrupt’ pariah or outcast on the other. Last year, the strategic Indian Ocean Island went from South Asia’s wealthiest nation with the best social and human development indicators to a beggar—humiliated and shunned by the ‘international community.’ This was after staging its first-ever Sovereign Default due to a Eurobond debt trap and purported lack of US dollars. The default triggered rapid rupee depreciation and instantly beggared citizens amid a distracting transnationally networked, remote-controlled ‘Aragalaya’ protest operation led by social media influencers. Ironically, there was a blockade on fuel shipments to the country amid the United States Marine’s ‘Sea Vision’ training program for the Sri Lanka Navy.

Newly formed Sri Lankan Marine Corps gets 241 years of experience in under a week. Credit: U.S. Marine Corps photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Jacob L. – Photo: 2023  .

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August 20, 2023 · 3:31 pm

Central SL Navy Role in the Defeat of the LTTE, 2007-09

Michael Roberts

In responding to an email note from the Trinitian MOHAN SAHAYAM re another Trinitian TRAVIS SINNIAH, I proceeded to search for my articles on the role of Commodores Wasantha Karannagoda and Travis Sinniah in identifying and sinking the LTTE’s (illegal?) merchant navy supply ships way out in the Indian Ocean and sinking them in 2007 (a central element in defeating the LTTE).

These are some of my chance FINDS.

 

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July 13, 2023 · 12:18 am

Leading Aussie Newspaper’s Gross Misreading of Ukraine’s War Situation

An Observer at A Black Sea Town … with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

I thought Ukraine was doing well – so says Peter Jennings writing in The Australian yesterday.  Jennings claimed Putin was “fighting for his survival” and talked about Zelensky’s “astonishing fighting spirit”; that Putin has been defeated in every war aim; that Ukraine will never come under Russian control; and that Putin’s “strategic leadership has been stunningly incompetent”. Yes, Ukraine has held up well.

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June 30, 2023 · 12:07 am

Western Media in Blind Alley on Russian Scenario

An Observer in a Black Sea Town

Very pleasing to see no blue haired, transexual, transgendered non-binary people in this group of young attractive Russian girls filmed in February 2023 at the Shaman’s concert in Yekaterinburg singing the song Я Русский [I’m Russian]. The girls sing: “I am Russian, and I am lucky”. **

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June 15, 2023 · 5:22 pm

‘Nuclear War’! An Escalaton to Nuclear Weaponry Around the Corner NOW!

An Observer in a Black Sea Town

A Russian professor of history has put forward the case for Russia to use nuclear weapons sooner rather than later to get the West to back off and thereby save humanity. His argument is stimulating much debate inside Russia.  He presents a compelling argument.

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June 7, 2023 · 4:47 pm

Colossal Flaws in Ukrainian Propaganda Pitch

An Observer in a Black Sea Resort Town

Here is an Ukranian propaganda film showing well-fed soldiers, wearing clean uniforms, who haven’t seen fighting, in a pristine location, with each soldier putting their forefinger to their mouth indicating “keep silent”, somewhat reminiscent of a British WW2 propaganda poster that reads, “Careless talk costs lives”. The quietness of the location in the film is emphasised by the sounds of birds and gunfire in the distance.

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June 5, 2023 · 12:09 am

How the Kandyan Sinhalese Forces Kept the European Powers at Bay for Two Centuries

PK Balachandran, whose original article in the Daily Mirror of 26 November 2021, is entitled “Kandyan armies which kept Europeans at bay for two centuries”

The Kandyan army also had local Malays and Kaffirs (Africans) and also Indians like Malabars, Tamils, Telugus, and Canarese (Karnatakas).  There was also an assortment of European deserters and prisoners. These mercenaries also served in the armies of European powers.

Kandyan peasant warriors. Codice Casanatense Sinhalese warriors. Wikiwand

The Kandyan Kingdom’s dogged resistance to European invaders from the 17th century to the second decade of the 19th century has not received the attention it deserves from military historians, laments historian Dr. Channa Wickremesekera, the author of “Kandy at War: Indigenous Military Resistance to European Expansion in Sri Lanka 1594-1818.”

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