Monday, May 18, 2009

What now in Sri Lanka

It has been announced that Vellipulai Prabhakaran is dead. The LTTE is finished as a semi-conventional military force.

In 1864, Lincoln ordered Sherman to march through Georgia to the sea. In 1865, after victory of the Confederacy, he aimed for reconciliation although he didn't live to achieve it.

In 2005, Mahinda Rajapaksa became leader of Sri Lanka with a hard-line view towards the LTTE. Now in 2009, he has succeeded in his own march to the sea. Will he take this opportunity to look on his devastated and divided country as Lincoln did in 1865? We can hope, but history has provided us with very few Lincolns.

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