Rays, you call it defeat , we call it tactical withdrawal.
Both are correct.
However, by making this statement Ajan accepts that LTTE is still a guerilla force and NOT a conventional army.
It is only a guerrilla force does this type of tactical withdrawals, simply because they do not have the strength to face a fully pledged conventional army.
From the point of view of SLAF it is a definite victory in the short run, but the victory of the war should not be measured by the victories of this type of battles that come in the way.
In 1996, Anuruddha Ratwatte and Gen. Daluwatte recorded a much bigger victory by recapturing Jaffna and forcing LTTE down to Kilinochchi, but that per se did not ensure peace in the country.
Even if SLAF is capable of totally eliminating LTTE (I never say it cannot. It obviously can but at a massive cost) that does not mean ethnic problem is solved. We still need a political solution for the ethnic issue. |