“Search Interrogate and Destroy” – Hard COIN for Hard Times

In late 2012, workers digging foundations for a new wing in Matale Hospital unearthed partial skeletons of more than 150 people. Of the various theories that sought to explain how this mass grave came to be, the one that most people instinctively thought might be true was that this was the final resting place of victims of death squads from 2^nd JVP insurgency, which from 1987 to 1989 almost brought the Sri Lankan State to total collapse. The counter-insurgency (COIN) campaign, which in turn destroyed the JVP had few equals (except perhaps the 1990s Algerian counter-insurgency campaign and the India’s anti-‘Khalistan’ counter-insurgency in the Punjab) for its ruthlessness.

Mass grave being excavated in Matale Hospital, 2012

Unlike today’s COIN warriors who use seemingly benign terms like “Fight, Secure, Build”, Sri Lanka’s COIN warriors used the more honest, “Search, Interrogate and Destroy” to characterise their brutal, blood-stained and ultimately successful campaign to crush the JVP.

Sri Lanka’s Civilian Deaths Bingo

The civilians killed in the last months of Sri Lanka’s bloody, brutal and comprehensive victory over the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) can’t find peace, even in death. The exact number of civilian deaths ranges from 1,000+ (Government of Sri Lanka – GoSL) to 7000+ (UN) to 20,000 (The Times) to 40,000 (various international human rights organisations) to a ludicrous 150,000+ (LTTE supporters).

‘Choose the number that best suits your argument’ is how Sri Lanka’s Civilian Deaths Bingo is being played. The latest UN report has increased the Casualty Bingo number yet again, this time to 40,000. But there’s an unexamined aspect of the last battle – what is an acceptable level of casualties in a hostage rescue operation?

Prabhakaran practicing the Human Shield Manoeuvre

UN’s Navi Pillay (Navi who?) demands ‘full disclosure’. Obama ‘Michael’ Corleone insists ‘we took care of family business’.

“We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority.” President Obama in 2008.

Western bloc human rights organizations are very, very hesitantly dipping their toes into the ‘prosecute Obama for assassinating Osama ‘cos it was a human rights violation’ narrative. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and The International Crisis Group are being extremely circumspect about tackling the US and President Obama’s actions.

'It’s not personal, its strictly business.’

Bin Laden’s death a War Crime? Immediate UN investigation demanded.

Why wasn’t Bin Laden captured alive to stand trial for his many terrorist attacks and crimes against humanity?

Antony Loewenstein – Biased Hack and Fluffer for Tamil Eelam

Antony who claims to be an “independent freelance journalist, author, documentarian, photographer and blogger” is an accomplished Fluffer* for Eelam.

*[A Fluffer is used on porn films to keep the male actors ready for action before filming of scenes requiring erections.]