So begins the "Year of Heroic Victory".
Jan. 2nd, 2009 05:42 pmRed letter day in Sri Lanka today.
The Sri Lankan government managed to capture LTTE capital Kilinochchi today. Defence Wire confirmed it first thing this morning.
And there's already a Wikipedia article on it!
The President addresses the nation.
Citizens use opportunity to prolong New Year's celebrations by setting off the last of their firecrackers and dancing in the streets. Because the ideal time to dance around the streets of Colombo is when you've just majorly pissed off a bunch of terrorists who happen to have a bunch of suicide bombers stashed away in the city. It's living proof against the theory of natural selection.
Tigers kill a minister and bomb a high security zone - in front of my Dad's office!
Thankfully, he got held up at work, and was not on the road at the time of the blast. However the roads are blocked/ closed off now and it'll take him a miracle to get out of there. Here's hoping nothing else gets blown up at least until he and my sister (who is at class at the mo) are safely home, but that may be too optimistic. Colombo is on high-security alert, but those fuckers are now desperate, furious and unpredictable and they've already managed to bomb a high security zone.
It's going to be "a hot time in the old town tonight".
This caught my eye: "Now the troops can do what the rebels did to them 10 years ago. Once they consolidate their positions in and around the town, they can set their sights on Elephant Pass, the strategic land bridge leading to the Jaffna peninsula."
I remember when Elephant Pass fell to the Tigers in 2000. The battle of Elephant Pass will be remembered as the biggest military debacle in the history of the Sri Lankan military. In the end 2403 soldiers and 3024 rebels had been killed. Another 357 soldiers were wounded. At the time I, like a lot of people, was screaming for blood. But now I think differently. Even if we do get it back, sooner or later they're going to try to get it back again and there will be more bloodshed. Back and forth, back and forth - I'm sick of it. Who cares if we get it back if we can't hang on to it for another two administrations running? And while a part of me want all the terrorists to be die painful and humiliating deaths, another part of me remembers that the majority of the LTTE are children who have been kidnapped and co-erced into their ranks and been brainwashed.
It's been going on for 25 years and in all likelihood will go on for another 20 more until the economy is in shambles and anybody with two braincells to rub together has got the hell out of dodge and the country is left to criminals and dictators.
I'd like to have hope...but I don't see how I can. The children of my generation have grown up with this war, and we no longer remember any other way to be. We haven't stopped fighting since 1971.
The Sri Lankan government managed to capture LTTE capital Kilinochchi today. Defence Wire confirmed it first thing this morning.
And there's already a Wikipedia article on it!
The President addresses the nation.
Citizens use opportunity to prolong New Year's celebrations by setting off the last of their firecrackers and dancing in the streets. Because the ideal time to dance around the streets of Colombo is when you've just majorly pissed off a bunch of terrorists who happen to have a bunch of suicide bombers stashed away in the city. It's living proof against the theory of natural selection.
Tigers kill a minister and bomb a high security zone - in front of my Dad's office!
Thankfully, he got held up at work, and was not on the road at the time of the blast. However the roads are blocked/ closed off now and it'll take him a miracle to get out of there. Here's hoping nothing else gets blown up at least until he and my sister (who is at class at the mo) are safely home, but that may be too optimistic. Colombo is on high-security alert, but those fuckers are now desperate, furious and unpredictable and they've already managed to bomb a high security zone.
It's going to be "a hot time in the old town tonight".
This caught my eye: "Now the troops can do what the rebels did to them 10 years ago. Once they consolidate their positions in and around the town, they can set their sights on Elephant Pass, the strategic land bridge leading to the Jaffna peninsula."
I remember when Elephant Pass fell to the Tigers in 2000. The battle of Elephant Pass will be remembered as the biggest military debacle in the history of the Sri Lankan military. In the end 2403 soldiers and 3024 rebels had been killed. Another 357 soldiers were wounded. At the time I, like a lot of people, was screaming for blood. But now I think differently. Even if we do get it back, sooner or later they're going to try to get it back again and there will be more bloodshed. Back and forth, back and forth - I'm sick of it. Who cares if we get it back if we can't hang on to it for another two administrations running? And while a part of me want all the terrorists to be die painful and humiliating deaths, another part of me remembers that the majority of the LTTE are children who have been kidnapped and co-erced into their ranks and been brainwashed.
It's been going on for 25 years and in all likelihood will go on for another 20 more until the economy is in shambles and anybody with two braincells to rub together has got the hell out of dodge and the country is left to criminals and dictators.
I'd like to have hope...but I don't see how I can. The children of my generation have grown up with this war, and we no longer remember any other way to be. We haven't stopped fighting since 1971.