Kaplan’s conclusions drawn from the Lankan Tamil-Sinhalese dust-up:
So is there any lesson here? Only a chilling one. The ruthlessness and brutality to which the Sri Lankan government was reduced in order to defeat the Tigers points up just how nasty and intractable the problem of insurgency is. The Sri Lankan government made no progress against the insurgents for nearly a quarter century, until they turned to extreme and unsavory methods. Could they have won without terrorizing the media and killing large numbers of civilians? Perhaps, but probably not without help from the Chinese, who, in addition to their military aid, gave the Sri Lankan government diplomatic cover at the UN Security Council.
These are methods the U.S. should never use. But the fact that this is what it took for the Sri Lankan government to subdue the Tamil Tigers makes clear just what a hard grind lies ahead for the U.S. in Afghanistan.
What’s the lesson here? Maybe the Melians had it coming.
Melians: You may be sure that we are as well aware as you of the difficulty of contending against your power and fortune, unless the terms be equal. But we trust that the gods may grant us fortune as good as yours, since we are just men fighting against unjust, and that what we want in power will be made up by the alliance of the Lacedaemonians, who are bound, if only for very shame, to come to the aid of their kindred. Our confidence, therefore, after all is not so utterly irrational.
Athenians: When you speak of the favour of the gods, we may as fairly hope for that as yourselves; neither our pretensions nor our conduct being in any way contrary to what men believe of the gods, or practise among themselves. Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can. And it is not as if we were the first to make this law, or to act upon it when made: we found it existing before us, and shall leave it to exist for ever after us; all we do is to make use of it, knowing that you and everybody else, having the same power as we have, would do the same as we do. Thus, as far as the gods are concerned, we have no fear and no reason to fear that we shall be at a disadvantage.
Comment by eddoctorwho — July 2, 2009 @ 7:18 am
How does Sri Lanka surprise anyone, or offer new insight? And what line has America not yet crossed? When an enemy is particularly intractable, humans would rather resort to savage measures than admit defeat. The British did it in the Revolution, the North did it in the Civil War, the Allies firebombed Dresden and nuked Japan, the draftees shot entire villages in Vietnam, &c.
There is, however, a much better chance of packing up and going home before the bitter end if you happen to be fighting an ocean away from home. Kick the dog on your way out, set the house on fire, and don’t tell your wife about what happened on the Grand Adventure.
Comment by Gabriel — July 2, 2009 @ 8:53 am
I’m not entirely sure how the area bombing of Germany and Japan or the destruction of the Shenandoah Valley, acts that were directly related to strategic war aims, can be considered analogous to My Lai, which was in direct contravention of US strategic goals.
Comment by eddoctorwho — July 2, 2009 @ 1:04 pm
Stay away from My Lai. Get your own.
Comment by nekobijin — July 2, 2009 @ 1:07 pm
If you can’t root the combatants out of the population, attack the entire population.
Comment by Gabe — July 2, 2009 @ 4:16 pm
Booooooo. Booooooooooooooooooo.
Comment by eddoctorwho — July 2, 2009 @ 1:11 pm