Tactical withdrawals of many guises




“ Then came Mavil Aru and the Sri Lankan armed forces proved that the LTTE can in fact be defeated. The experts who said that LTTE is invincible were jolted and took a step back, tactically withdrew and said, East was never an LTTE stronghold but Vanni is.”

by Nacholibre

(October 25, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The LTTE never said they were continuously losing the Elam war IV. Every bit of a defeat was a tactical withdrawal for them even if it meant losing entire villages, districts and regions to the State armed forces, which were once under their full control. As a matter of fact, their claim is to be totally expected. One would not expect otherwise that the LTTE would go public saying that they have lost anything to the armed forces, which would certainly be suicidal for them in the eyes of its money sending Diaspora. For them to save face and keep claiming that they are the sole liberators of the Tamils in Sri Lanka and to keep the bargaining power intact with the State, the LTTE terrorists will not say anything other than that they are tactically withdrawing, no matter how badly they get beaten in the current phase of the war.

Parallel to the LTTE’s tactical withdrawals, it is interesting to see a couple of simultaneous tactical withdrawals by a few interested parties in the Sri Lankan conflict.

Once the LTTE was conferred the invincibility title by the pro-LTTE propaganda and other entities with pro-LTTE sentiments, the popular claim by the so-called war experts and analysts was that the LTTE could not be defeated at all. That Sri Lanka is too weak both politically and militarily to achieve such a task was the popular belief and every time the State tried to tackle the LTTE militarily, these bogus experts were up in arms saying that the military victory over the LTTE is impossible. The world media, which were harboring pro-LTTE sentiments readily picked up this and used to include in every article they wrote on the SL conflict.

Then came Mavil Aru and the Sri Lankan armed forces proved that the LTTE can in fact be defeated. The experts who said that LTTE is invincible were jolted and took a step back, tactically withdrew and said, East was never an LTTE stronghold but Vanni is. They predicted that the Sri Lankan forces would not be able to dislodge the LTTE from the North as the terrorists are well dug in their.

Contrary to the popular belief, once the Mannar rice bowl fell and the LTTE terrorists were evicted wholesale from their well dug in strongholds in the North, the bogus war experts found it hard to believe that the SL forces were marching strongly along the A32 and parallel to A9, decimating LTTE strongholds of Adampan, Periyamadu, Vidtalthivu, Vellankulama, Thunnukkai, Mallavi, and from the East of A9 in the Welioya front, which areas they never thought would fall to the army easily.

Thereafter, when the SL forces victoriously marched through all the LTTE defences to encircle the Killinochchi town boarders, these pro-LTTE war experts must have felt sick with disbelief.

Why? Because what they thought to be impossible was actually happening at lightening speed in front of their very eyes. They cold not tell anymore in one voice that the Sri Lankan forces cannot defeat the LTTE militarily. The capable military leadership and the political leadership of the country had made that ludicrous rhetoric redundant..

As a result, we see a few parallel tactical withdrawals by the BBC and Mr. Blake, the US ambassador in the latest news items.

The BBC added this line at the end of a recent article on its website..

It said, ‘Much of the Tigers' military strength is concentrated to the east of the town, towards Mullaitivu on the coast’, which may be to imply that the LTTE had not been strong in the East or in the parts of the North, which are already captured from the LTTE, but are actually strong in places close to Mulaitivu. Thus, the BBC’s tactical withdrawal can thus be understood.

On another front, Mr. Blake, the US ambassador has been quoted by the Hindu newspaper as saying the following. He has said, “a military solution is going to be very, very difficult”. Now for Mr. Blake to go back from his earlier stance, which said LTTE cannot be militarily defeated, to the current stance, which says that it is very, very difficult, can also be considered as a tactical withdrawal on his part.

Since Sri Lankan armed forces have proved their military capabilities and that they can be entrusted to accomplish very, very difficult jobs in relation to the current phase of the war, Mr. Blake too may have had second thoughts of saying that the LTTE cannot be militarily defeated under the present circumstances. However, Mr. Blake too must know that what he used to think as impossible has now turned out to be possible, even though it is very, very difficult.

Unlike impossible tasks, very, very difficult tasks can be accomplished if we put our mind and heart to it.
- Sri Lanka Guardian