Zalm
If you're interested - or curious, send me an email at

What, we're supporting the Tamil Tigers now?

Is it totally irrelevant how a group advances its political agenda? It must be, if forcible recruitment of children fails to make the cause illegitimate.

And they don’t pretend the whole issue is simply a debate about Israel’s right to exist or some hoary rehash of 19th century anti-Semitism.

I dunno yammer, almost all of these stories about 'terrorists' turn out to have two sides. I'm with Zalm, I'd like to hear more.

It's to easy these days to fall into the 'war on terror' dialectic. After all, look where its gotten them down south of here. Why would we automatically deny the legitimacy of a struggle we in Canada know virtually nothing about?

I'm not saying I sympathize by I think it's worthwhile trying to understand.

Sri Lanka and Asymmetrical Devolution – Is it a solution?
Wed, 2006-08-30 03:45
http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/1767#comment-2365
By Raj Gonsalkorale
it is the folly of successive Sri Lankan governments that paved the way for the emergence of the LTTE
Some of the Constitutional changes since 1956, and the aborted agreements between the Sinhala dominated governments and democratic Tamil political parties have demonstrated this reality, making Tamils rightfully distrustful of the Sinhala people and their political representatives.

Had those who advocated, funded, and fought the American Revolution done so today, they would have been branded "terrorists". The Tamils did not used to be "terrorists" until about 3 years ago. Now they are.

Don't ya just love sweeping generalizations?

Some of them were. Butler's Rangers on the British side would certainly qualify as well. The invasion of the west by the US Cav was also pretty darn terrorist-like what with the biological WMDs, the genocide etc

Im a Tamil living in Australia.

I honostly think that those tamils who were arested were traped. I mean is im a tiger supporter and somebody who looks credible and comes to me asking to sell anti-aircraft missiles, i will be tempted too. Buying missiles and AK 47 from North america and sending to Sri Lanka is not making sense to me. Its like buying heroin from USA and sending it to Afganistan. Tigers have plenty of arms dealers in South east asia and from africa. I think these pple who got arested were naive and over enthusiatic tamils try to help the tamil struggle but got cought in traped by FBI.

It shud be said that tigers never harm the foreigners. our struggle is only against sihnala domination. Even in a huge attack in katunake Air base no foreigners died. only a russian pilot was slighltly injured. recently pakistani embassy man was seemingly targeted in colombo. and the ambassidor and the paki government both confirms it was the work of Indian inteigent service and not the tigers.

tiger leadership is sometime unwise and used suicide bombing agaisnst enemy targets in colombo. thats what put us with other islamic terrorists. Howevr now they have stoped it. Thank god. this type of suicide bombing made the westerners to think we are nothing but terrorists and tarnished our freedom struggle. i hope Tigers will wise up.

"Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich." - Peter Ushtinov.

Tigers are not poor anymore. They are a fully flaged Eelam defence Force thanks to tamil people. I hope they will not use these terrorist tactics anymore. Then all the tmails will be behind them to achive our freedom.

from RickW:

nope, it is not "sweeping generalizations", it is NEWSPEAK

What I find interesing about the Tyee is not so much what it publishes but what it does not. The real doozie of the week was Smilin' Millionaire Jack advocating "negoiations" with the Taliban and and his sidekick Bozo the Chow supporting Hezbollah.

It would be pathetic if it weren't so funny. Actually, on second thought, it is pathetic.

Working Man:

The entire "War on Terror" has put the world 50 years back in the struggle for peace. An emerging consensus on international criminal law was felled in one swoop by the criminal arms and oil dealers in the US. Instead of sophisticated measures to end war, terrorism, and human rights violating regimes, we have a semantics driven mockery used to justify wanton violence and lawlessness the world over. And all the other tyrants who escape the media are free to commit whatever atrocities they wish.

With respect to the US, they violated the most fundamental law of non-agression. They continue to use banned weapons that result in indiscriminate civilian deaths far beyond the scale of Sept. 11. They condition arms trades (cloaked as 'aid') with dubious regimes on the condition that those countries will not support an international criminal court for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It is in these psychos' interests that an actual rule of law (including democratic principles) fails.

Jack and the NDP have taken a couragous stand. The basic idea is that so long as we are operating with the US and their illegal state terrorist tactics, any international legitimacy for our mission is dubious at best. Put it this way: get the US and Britain out of Afghanistan, and Canada may have a role there. However, things are pretty messed up when the people we are fighting may have a legitimate right to defend themselves against the US and Britain specifically. This is the same in Iraq. So long as the new 'government' lacks effective control, there continues to be an argument for legitimate resistance. And so long as the US it there, there is no legitimate control, and the occupiers are just that.

I agree with Seelan's quote, "Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich."

You cannot have a war on terror. You can have a struggle against war AND terror. Or a struggle for human rights such as self-determination. But all these are more or less defined by international law, and all that is lacking is state practice.

Working man:

Your post has an interesting way of flushing out the truth. We have cell phones now. We have no need to walk up to terrorists with white flags and risk crossover from a drive by. I think the Canadian government can pay for the minutes on that one, such an expensive thing to do, you know, "negotiate".

All we have to do is pick up the phone, but in order to make this simplistic thing happen, we have to universally agree on our end that a certain percentage of labelled terrorists aren't completely mad. I can think of Libya as a cited "conservative" example.

In other words, we can try to "negotiate" or to use a better term, use diplomacy, especially when we have like say what we had in Lebanon... Canadian citizens in huge risk of losing their lives in, you know, "crossfire from drive by's".

In such circumstances, we need to have open lines of communication, instead of what we have now in terms of leadership, someone who supports someone who does not "negotiate" with "terrorists", to quote GW Bush.

Or, carrot on a stick - instead of just stick. Working man can't even draw analogies from his own experience.

Frank:

There are no innocent parties.....only "winners".

murdock:

I WAS going to use NEWSPEAK (honest!), but I've used it before and thought maybe it was being dun to deth........

RickW:

nope, cannot be used enough in my view.

Orwell had it right and we must use his works like a bat to beat on the heads of those whom cannot hear the rhythm of history.

The entire war on terror crap is NEWSPEAK in its most brutal and obvious form, it is sad that so many others cannot see this for what it is.

Voltaire would weep at our folly.

Orwell is screaming from beyond the veil that he warned us all...

Every time I hear 'Orange Alert' all I can hear is #24, The Supervisor, from "The PRISONER" series saying,

"Orange Alert, Orange Alert. All Units #6 is ... blah, blah, blah."

In his thick english accent, the entire US Homeland Security is like something from a very bad 'B' movie and it is being perpetrated on some very intelligent and thoughtful people.

One of thier originators had a quote:

They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security

---B. Franklin

The entire argument regarding all 'freedom fighters' or 'terrorists' revolves around these principles.

Bozo and Brain, I actually agree with you. The "War on Terror" is anything but that and Canada has no place in Afghanistan whatsoever.

However, suggesting that anybody can "negoiate" with the Taliban is naive and idealistic in the extreme.

Idealistic maybe but also the height of idiotic nonsense. It got him on the news and that is about as far as it will go.

We would be much better getting rid of Herr Harper and bringing our people home and Smilin' Jack ain't gonna be the one to do it.

So, wm, would you have said the same thing years ago when 'negotiations' began with Gaddafi?

I'll wager you would have.

Not necessrily. Gaddaffi, while a dictator, has always ran a relatively sane, secular state. Age tends to make most of us sensible and methings the same happened with Momar.

The fact remains that the ultimate goal of the Taliban is for everyone in the world to convert to their version of Islam and they are willing to kill anyone doesn't. They are not about to cut deals with anybody.

I can't see why the left loves to idolise murderous thugs and I am not in any way condoning what the Americans are doing in their equally idiotic "war on terror."

WM - You must be kidding! Check out your recent history...about Gadaffi and terrorism. You can start here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1053648,00.html

The Taliban couldn't care less what we do in the rest of the world - you clearly haven't read much about that situation except white house press releases.

What murderous thugs does the left idolize?

Examples please?

Comos
You must have taken your handle as a to honour a certain Premier of this Province who carried the same name. Jack Layton is a fool, he may be an ok municipal politician, but a disgrace as a national one. Everytime he opens his mouth he convinces me that my choice to abandon the NDP was the correct one.

The LTTE is considered the group that started suicide bombings and maintains a group of young men and woman to carry out those attacks, including a more recent one using a young pregnant woman. They have quite the reputation even in a group that has a reputation for toughness and discipline.
In a way they are similar to Hezbollah as they are a mix of conventional forces and illregulars. They are a regional oriented force with a stated and fairly realistic goal. They are not interested in global terror, but likely have contacts with other groups that are.

Running such an organization requires large sums of money and they will collect it through legitimate and illegitimate means. Any Sri Lankan that lives overseas with family in tiger controlled areas must pay a passage fee to get through their lines and there has been cases of them using the families as “hostages” to pressure rich Tamils to donate money. They can be just as brutal as the government forces. I doubt very much that they could easily transition from a rebel force to a fully functioning government within the rule of the law. (yes I know they operate partly like a state already)

For the Tamil that replied, Every rebel/terrorist group is desperate to acquire handheld up to date Surface to Air Missiles (SAM), having them gives the groups distinct advantages and are worth taking risks to acquire them.

Mao Tse Tung, Che Guevarra and to a lesser extent Stalin.

You must be kidding! The last left wingers who idolized those three are in old folks homes or on life support.

Only socialist I've ever 'idolized' - and perhaps that's cause I met him three times myself (when I was pretty young) was T.C.Douglas.

Maybe capitalizm causes socializm because aren't the roots of capitalizm in the old model of princes and serfs?

Che Guevarra is in vogue again, G west, please try to keep up. ;-)

Actually the left likes to idolize the Islamic insurgent struggling to defeat the evil- imperialistic US led by the Dr Evil (aka Bush). Which is kind of amusing as the ideals of the Islamic insurgents are directly opposed of the one professed by the left.

Lets not forget to mention Chavez, Castro, although
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is now become rather unmarketable. The new Bolivian leader is the new Darling though, his cabinet is a rather interesting set of characters and I suspect that the day to day requirements of running their new nationalized oil industry will cause them some frustration, but it’s to early to give them any marks either positive or negative.

Colin
Yep Che Guevara is popular again with the young crowd after the recent movie - eapecially for young fellows with a few oats to sow and a penchant for motorcycles...and of course for the young ladies who prefer that kind of young fellow.

Do you think you and working man could at least manage to spell his name correctely?

LOL

I should learn to spell 'especially' too I guess.

Further self-deprecating