Barefoot sarong owners should stop barking at the moon

The Lankan blogosphere is rife with the stereotypical barefoot sarong owning 'middle class sri lankans' sounding more and more like card carrying members of Wimal Weerawansa's Patriotic National Movement.

"The West is attacking Sri Lanka, instead of helping" they say, USA and UK are "sympathizing with terrorists" apparently or "Interfering with our war on terrorism" and showing "double standards"... and on and on they go.

Enough with the frothy growls people. Calm down, take a deep breath and think about what you're defending. Let Gota borrow a page from the Mugabe handbook on media relations - he is cementing the Rajapakse hand on the nation. Thats a good reason for him - Whats your motive?

When the government proclaims that not a "single civillian was killed by shelling" that isn't dishonesty - its an attempt to equate Tamils and Tigers. This wasn't a war to liberate the Tamils from the LTTE, it was a war to liberate the Sinhalese from the LTTE. I agree that it was a war that had to be fought and the LTTE had to be destroyed but it had to be done with some concern for civilian casualties (instead, the government exhibited no concern and underscored their intentions by keeping the World's media out).

When the USA and UK invaded Iraq, the World's media was "embedded" and they were able to report on what happened, albeit a Western view. However, when the Iraqi national archives were looted by some US Troops the Western media didn't hide it - it was headline news and that helped stem the tide of looting and excesses. The world's media has played an invaluable role in checking abuses like Abu Gh'b and Gitmo. Those countries have processes that deal with such abuses and more often than not, the outcome is right and not wrong.

Contrast that with Sri Lanka's history of presidential commissions that have never ever held anybody accountable for any excess.

Besides, the war against the LTTE couldn't have been won if the UK, EU and the USA didn't outlaw the LTTE and shut down their lethal networks. Under the circumstances, they have a right to question the prosecution of Sri Lanka's war.

What Sri Lanka doesn't need at this time is for the "intelligentsia" to start barking at the moon, like the rest of the pack of rabid dogs that pose off as our leaders & elders.

We all know that LTTE/Prabhakaran was the symptom and not the problem. If you have that level of awareness, then ignorance is not your refuge for your "us against the World" attitude.

Lets get real people. If we want the World to help us rebuild, then we need to be more mature.

Sri Lanka is her biggest enemy and every time we bark at the moon, we're sapping ourselves of the energy and will to look at our own reflection in the water.

Sri Lanka can be better than that! We can be better than that!