Choice

When you take to reading newspapers as a child, you grow up with some cities, and some men and women. I, born in 1978, grew up with Jaffna, Beirut, LTTE, Khalistanis, and Prabhakaran.

When Rajiv Gandhi was killed, I said to my father: Our government is hopeless. We know LTTE did it. We know where from LTTE operates. Had it been Israel, they would have incinerated Jaffna by now! And see our response.

But Prabhakaran got his comeuppance. He is dead. Gandhis must be secretly celebrating.

I know little about origins of Tamil problem. (But) It seems that Sinhalese, initially, refused to give equal status to Tamils. Tamil protests were put down mercilessly.

Still, LTTE, it seems, was demonic in its ways and thinking, even against the backdrop of Sinhalese excesses. Prabhakaran started his career by killing Tamil mayor of the town he lived in. Because the fellow had "collaborated" with Sri Lankan authorities. LTTE became sole face of Tamil struggle, because all the rivals were eliminated. But it must be admitted that he must be greatest of the motivators: people were ready to strap bombs around their bodies and explode at his wish.

Reports say that at least ten thousand civilian Tamils died since January because of Sri Lankan army's indiscriminate assault. I have this to say in Sri Lankan authorities' defence: it was a very difficult moral dilemma, and no one can criticise them for the choice they made.

For twenty years there were efforts to broker peace. LTTE wanted nothing but partition of the country. Even when it became clear that the war was lost, it fought on. Civilians weren't allowed to flee. What should Sri Lankans have done? To stop the war and give LTTE a breather?

Being restrained in use of force is OK if you are dealing with adversary who is reasonable. LTTE wasn't. Israel came in for similar criticism for assault on Gaza. Jews never had any right to go to Palestine and set up a nation there, if you ask me. But once they settled there, they had to defend themselves. Hamas sent rockets into Israeli cities: there was no option but to enter Gaza and go after them. Hamas has only one demand: Isreal should vanish off the Palestine. How does one deal with them?

And western nations themselves have exercised the choice of aggression in similar conditions. Didn't British and US planes flattened residential quarters of Hamburg, Germany, in 1943?