The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) or more commonly called Tamil Tigers has been one of the more savage militant groups that have ever been formed. The group has been notorious in undertaking suicide bombings, as well as recruiting child soldiers. It is also known to have engaged in arms trafficking. The Tamil Tigers “were the pioneers in many of the terrorist tactics we see worldwide today,” according to Jason Campbell who is an Iraq and Afghanistan analyst.
The Sri Lanka government’s success in defeating the Tamil Tigers now teaches important lessons in fighting insurgencies that can possibly inspire insurgent-riddled countries such as Pakistan, Sudan, Algeria, and Somalia.
Sri Lanka showed the world that the currently held wisdom of negotiations with insurgents and diplomatic agreements do not work. The age-old tactic of overwhelming military force does. And Sri Lanka, indeed, defeated its insurgency through sheer and unrelenting military might. Pulverize the enemy it did.
Some critics have now come out with the opinion that Sri Lanka pounded the enemy at the expense of millions of the country’s civilians. The question now is this: faced with the growing uncontrollable situation wreaked by a vicious group such as the LTTE, is it justified that Sri Lanka incurred a lot of collateral damage along the way? With what the Tamil Tigers have shown by way of characteristic violence, it could have been far worse down the road if Sri Lanka did not move the way it did recently.
Via TIME
