Trivializing the victory of May 2009

DJ, Cuba and Castro. The Island in its Midweek review of 25 August 2010 has once again carried an article (‘Tamil politics and LTTE strategy) by Dayan Jayathileke, (DJ).

DJ, Cuba and Castro.His foray has been triggered by a nearly 1000 page book by the ailing Castro called’ The Strategic Victory’. This is probably to justify why Castro after deposing a dictator became one himself for nearly 50 years, running his country into the ground and having 20,000 political prisoners tortured regularly in jail for decades if not for life.

DJ’s objectives. DJ appears to have 2 main objectives, one of which is hidden. One is to publicize DJ’s enthusiasm and compulsion to shower praise on Castro and his 300 Cuban rebels and the other to revive his contention if not obsession that the final victory of the SL forces over the LTTE on 19 May 2009 could have occurred in 1987. In an earlier article he made out that there were 3 occasions before 2009 when victory could have taken place. This time probably having become more cautious if not wiser he restricts himself to 1987. This is sad, coming from one who consistently held the view that the SL forces even at the worst of times when the going was tough and worrying, especially at the time of the CFA when the LTTE’s 5th column was on a rampage, would overcome the terrorists.

Late delivery (No ball). While DJ is welcome to contribute to Castro propaganda even if it borders on or is ridiculous, the question arises why he after over one year forces himself to propagate his theory that the victory of 2009 was not all that unique. It appears to be a stubborn attempt to take away the luster of what was SL’s epic victory. That victory and the date and non other will go down in SL history to record the defeat of the terrorist scourge. Any ‘if and but’ theories, how ever many times repeated, will not change even one part of it.

Irony-CFA Minister. DJ is joined ironically in his oft repeated quest by a Minister who reiterates the same ‘if and but’ theory that the SL military could have defeated the LTTE (in1987) ‘as it was about to or well might have… when it was ...interrupted by an external shock’ (DJ). The Minister as a cohort of Ranil should have thought of this when he was one of the most visible and vocal supporters of the notorious CFA of Solheim and the LTTE.

1987-A battle not fought. What DJ and the Minister fail to accept or realize, is that in 1987 no battle for Jaffna (town) even began far less was actually fought. Where in the world, except in dreams do people theorize that a battle could have been won without a shot being fired? After the successful Vadamarchchi battle in May1987, the impetus and urge to take Jaffna was reinforced by President JRJ apparently saying ‘raze Jaffna to the ground, burn the town and then rebuild it’.(Dixit-Assignment Colombo).The Indian invasion’ put paid to that attempt.

Concern for casualties. However there were also conflicting assessments by the ground commanders. Knowing that the bulk of the LTTE remained unscathed, some worried about extremely high casualties to both troops and to civilians. Fighting in built up areas which is at very close quarters, sometimes from room to room, where bayonet and grenade would often be used, would be very much different to battling in the open scrub lands of Vadamarchchi. The influx of 100,000 IDPs into the town after Vadamarachchi would compound matters. It was a situation the Army wished to avoid as much as possible as in 2009. Had the battle taken place the alleged ‘white flag’ incident of 2009 would have in the full glare of international TV, looked like child’s play in comparison.

Actual battle(s) for Jaffna. The experience of the IPKF in October 1987 and the SL forces in 1995 when they eventually took Jaffna after extremely bitter fighting not only proved how terrible the casualties and devastation would be but also that the LTTE when cornered after resisting, would escape into the Wanni to continue battle from there.

Castro-tactics or strategy? DJ also claims Castro’s rebel group that defeated the previous dictator of Cuba, Batista, was far superior to the LTTE in strategy. Castro led just 300 men whose rudimentary tactics not strategy were sufficient to defeat the corrupt Batista’s incoherent, ill disciplined, demoralized, badly trained and poorly equipped and led forces.

Castro and Prabakaran. DJ says that any comparison of Prabakaran with Castro is like comparing ‘Hobbit with an Olympian’. Did he get the order of names right? He goes on to state that the ‘LTTE was the world’s top terrorist but not the world’s best guerilla formation’, without defining the difference. Even so the world today with Taliban and Al Qaida is much removed from when Cuban dictators played musical chairs. VP’s forces killed over 26,000 SL and 1200 Indian soldiers, captured and destroyed SL Navy boats and ships and destroyed SLAF aircraft in the air and on the land whereas in the less than one year Cuban clash, the total casualties were just over 4 figures. Often the ‘rebels’ had one digit deaths in battle.

Comparisons with Ho Chi Minh and Mao. DJ says that VP was ‘not a master strategist…..’ like Fidel, Ho Chi Minh‘. These are the 2 that should be the real Hobbit and Olympian comparison. He also says that if VP was a master strategist he ‘would like Mao have reverted to mobile and guerilla warfare’. Did the SL Army give him that option? However for anyone to be compared to Mao itself must be considered a compliment. Was Castro? When the LTTE were surrounded by the SL Army in Mullativu their position was unlike that which faced Mao‘s force of 200,000 surrounded by the 700,000 Nationalist Army of Chiang. Mao’s great escape with a ‘Long March’ of 6,000 miles left him with only 8,000 of the 100,000 who started the trek. The numbers and space involved bear no comparison to Castro’s rumble and Batista’s tumble in Cuba. Or much that happened in SL or elsewhere.

Giap ignored. Why? DJ did not mention Vo Nguyen Giap in his line up of great guerilla leaders. Is DJ’s failure something to do with his official visit to Vietnam? It was Giap, the victor over the French at Dien Bien Phu, who forced the USA to withdraw from Vietnam after its greatest defeat ever. Giap is with Mao amongst the 100 greatest military leaders the world has ever known.

VP’s failure to adopt guerilla strategy. However it is true that VP did not revert to guerilla war like Mao when his conventional war attempt was failing. He certainly must have tried as expected by the SL Army Commander of that time but the formidable and unforgiving SL ground commanders,Generals Shavendra de Silva, Jagath Dias, Prassana de Silva, Nandana Udawatte and Chale Galage amongst others and their stolid soldiers did not offer him the luxury of either choosing what form of war to fight or to choose his battle ground. They pinned him down, wore him out, cut off options, cut off his escape routes, removed his cover of humans deftly without causing avoidable casualties and trapped him so that he did what he was forced to –to fight to the end, honourably. Yet DJ wants to know why VP did not bite his ‘famous’ cyanide capsule. That would have been a trite difficult when one gets a head shot or worse. The courage, daring, resolve, endurance and initiative of the LTTE was second to none amongst terrorists, insurgents and guerillas in history. Their cruelty and sadism was despicable, bestial and legendry. Most of the 100,000 deaths speak to it. Ask any SL or former IPKF soldier or the civilians in any part of the land.

Castro and Batista -Cuban Army and the LTTE. There is little comparison between the Eelam and Cuban conflict. DJ states that Castro, ‘because he not only held off a vastly superior army … but smashed the offensive, achieving a strategic victory’ was greater than Leonidas. In fact Castro’s ‘invasion’ force eventually landed some distance from its intended place after being lost for 2 days at sea. A far cry from the intrepid boatmen of the LTTE who knew the seas as well its land based cadres knew the Wanni jungles. Castro’s men were immediately set upon and lost 60 of its 80 cadres. The ‘vastly superior’ Cuban army scooted, surrendered or deserted without fighting almost every time they met while both Castro’s insurgents/ guerillas and Batista’s army wandered around the hills and mountains looking for each other. Of the 20,000 killed in the war the majority died after the war (executed). Cuba also has about 20,000 political prisoners to date, a horrifying ‘strategy’ of a ‘master strategist’ to remain in power to the death. VP was not far behind on off battle field terror.

Korean War. DJ claims that Batista’s Cuban army in 1958/9 was a ‘10,000 strong force of US trained (for possible deployment in the Korean War) and equipped army …. Supported by air force planes firing US supplied rockets’ was defeated by Castro’s fighters. The Korean War cease fire was in 1951 so the Cuban army’s ‘possible deployment’ in 1958 other than by using a time machine is another ridiculous figment of DJ’s runaway imagination. The Cuban air force lacked maintenance due to a US embargo on spares and was therefore of little value. The best it could do was to occasionally bomb a small town. The US in the early years was not anti Castro, who was anti communist, and invited him to the USA. So DJ’s little USA spin did not work.

Leonidas. DJ correctly refers to Thermopylae, fought nearly 2500 years ago as ‘one of the most famous battles ever’. He however uses it to compare of all people Prabakaran and Castro with Leonidas the king of Sparta who with 300 Spartan body guards and about 7,000 others held the Pass at Thermopylae against 180,000 infantry and cavalry (not ‘several hundred thousand’ as DJ states) of the invading Persians led by Xerxes the Persian King, heir to Darius . DJ dismisses VP off hand but concludes hopefully if not pathetically that Castro was ‘greater than Leonidas’.

Thermopylae. The Pass at Thermopylae had high cliffs on one side and the sea on the other. This blocked the route between North and South Greece. Leonidas’ soldiers fought so hard at the Pass that Xerxes contemplated retreat. At this point the Spartans were betrayed by a Greek deserter. The Persians made their way into the mountains around the pass and came up to attack the Spartans from 2 sides. Knowing that they would be surrounded the Spartans instead of escaping fought to the death in the Pass. Rings a bell about what happened to VP and his 200 body guards on the banks of the Nandi Kadal lagoon although there was no comparison to Leonidas and Thermopylae. It was further said that Leonidas believing the in oracles thought that if he did not die Sparta would be lost. Thus he died willingly.

Castro’s Luck. Of course Castro did not have to do something similar at any time. After the 1953 Moncada Barracks attack Castro was captured but not executed like many others. No one knows why. Some Jesuit priests pleaded for him. He was released after 2 years by Batista a former close family friend who when Castro got married had given him US$ 1000 as a gift too. Later (1958) when he was surrounded at the battle of Las Mercedes, Castro negotiated with Batista’s ground Commander General Cantillo, won a reprieve and made use of it to escape. VP apparently nor Che Guevara could match the ‘strategic’ survival skills of Castro which in a Spanish setting is not strange.

May 2009 is SL’s day. Castro has a place amongst the best insurgent leaders of the 1950s. VP has one amongst the best in the world in history. That is why the victory of May 2009 is momentous, tremendous and yes thrilling and those who won it famous. SL will remember it and no other. It should not be trifled with for any ad hoc reasons, editor’s deadlines or hidden agendas.

- Asian Tribune -