In an interview with the Times of London http://www.timesonline.co.uk (article) Sergeant Thavone Phavivong of the 3rd Brigade states:”It can be hard when you see injured civilians, but we’re taught that our first priority is our soldiers. And with all the people around, it’s not easy to make a positive identification of hostiles”
<span style=”float:left; padding-right:10px;”>[ad#200×200]</span>Isn’t this an amusing situation? Here we have the West screaming at Sri Lanka to “protect” civilians while they show totally disregard to civilians facing extinction in two wars (one of which was completely unjustified).
The article goes on to say:
“Since March 2003, more than 4,100 US soldiers have been killed and over 30,000 wounded in a war the army simply wasn’t prepared for. Suicide bombs, IEDs and snipers wrought havoc in regiments that were ill equipped for urban warfare. Civilians suffered too, as troops with little understanding of local languages and culture sometimes adopted heavy-handed tactics.”
As always their dead are mentioned first along with the horrors and heroism of their soldiers, with a mere footnote for civilians massacred by them. The same can be seen whenever Vietnam is mentioned, where once again US Military causalities come first and the innocent 3 million Vietnamese and 1 million Cambodians and Laotians who were burnt alive with napalm, had chemical weapons dropped on them wiping out tens of thousands every week and causing birth defects in new borns, which is present to this day, is nicely glossed over (so called “heavy-handed tactics”) along with the destruction done to agricultural zones.
One of the worlds best paddy fields was turned to ash. Of course this should come as no surprise, in the Wests attempts to subjugate various indigenous peoples of foreign lands they resort to “heavy-handed tactics”, where the effects are felt for decades if not centuries.
The Western “free media” has no problem with any of this. No tears for the civilians killed by them, the destruction of livelihoods and agriculture. What we see is strong support and backing, plus encouragement and positive spin to boost morale on all fronts for the wars they are engaged in.
Compare this to their reporting on Sri Lanka, and the reporting by Sri Lanka’s fiction writers who consider themselves “journalists”. Foreign and local media not only demonise our soldiers and military but the Sinhala people as well and this demonisation is used as justification for all the atrocities committed against the Sinhalese.
To top it off, there is the “outrage” over General Sarath Fonseka’s recent statements. If a General, Commander and even politician in a Western country said what Sarath Fonseka said then they would be proclaimed heros and have statues built for them. But when Sarath Fonseka says what we all know and hold in our minds and our hearts it is “evil”.
I for one am proud of Sarath Fonseka, I am proud of the fact that he has a back bone to speak the hard truth, I am proud of his determination and courage to do what has to be done to safe guard our nation. It is unfortunate to see attempts to silence him and remove him using ridiculous concepts from the West such as “political correctness” spilling into Sri Lanka, naturally spread by their NGOs, which is another way of controlling our thought and actions via “guilt”.
What happened to “freedom of speech”? Are only Tamils entitled to this? Is Sarath Fonseka and our soldiers not entitled to it, considering the unimaginable sacrifices they make every day to ensure all the people of Sri Lanka can express their rights and freedoms? The very NGOs (read traitors) who scream at Sarath Fonseka using their right to freedom of speech to castigate him (and the Sinhala people) can only do so because Sarath Fonseka is protecting their freedom to do it, yet he is not allowed to express the very rights he and his men fight for.
Interestingly it is these very same NGOs who openly support the enemies of State, that tried to justify the assassination attempt on Sarath Fonseka because he’s “just the Army Commander”, so deserves to die, even during a so called “ceasefire”.
According to them and their paymasters, the truth, the shocking hard truth (i.e. the historical facts of this Island) has to be varnished and buried and never spoken because it “hurts Tamil feelings”.
Why must the Sinhala people be denied their freedoms of speech, expression and right of self determination NOT to hand over 40% of their nation to a violent (largely imported) minority drunk on the concept of self-superiority because they were given unjustified privileges during Colonial times under foreign rulers?
Do we not have the right to self-determination in our only country? Do we not have legitimate grievances and aspirations to be answered and fulfilled in our only country? Do we not have the right to live in security without fear as dignified people who can express themselves and desires openly, take pride in their history, culture and heroes of our times?
Silence of the masses only confirms the answer: “no we do not” and emphasises the cowardice on our part. Our silence only betrays the hard work and sacrifices of Sarath Fonseka today and ALL our soldiers over the last two and a half millennia. We cannot allow their scarifies be for nothing by abandoning our culture, history, philosophy and values to alien entities because they say we should do so just to be on their good side.
By Silence is Shameful