‘To jaw-jaw’ said Winston Churchill ‘is always is better than to war-war”

Unfortunately, when faced with an opponent who declines to negotiate but insists on attacking one militarily, there is no alternative but to meet force with force. As Britain did against Nazi Germany in 1939 and America did against Japan after the Pearl Harbour attack of 1941, Sri Lanka too had to take up arms against the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)- an organisation that was proscribed as a terrorist organisation by both Britain, India and the US.

This war against the LTTE lasted for 22 years, and only ended in 2009 with the defeat of the LTTE and the death (like the death of Hitler in 1945) of its feared leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

And just as Britain and the US utilised some of the most powerful military resources they had at their disposal to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, so too did Sri Lanka use all it had to militarily defeat the LTTE

When attention is drawn these days to the “alleged human rights abuses” of the Sri Lankan government in the conduct of the war, it is pertinent to recall that in February 1945, the British Royal Air Force unleashed devastating fire-bombing raids on the German city of Dresden. In 1945, this was a city in which were many historic buildings - as well as thousands of refugees. It is estimated that from the 13th to the 14th of February 1945, between 35,000 and 135,000 people of Dresden were killed by the RAF’s blanket bombing – which reduced Saxony’s capital of culture to a mass of rubble.

At that time there was no call by any governments or organizations for any inquiry - and no mention of the Human Rights of the Germans citizens of Dresden. Britain was not called on to defend its actions by modern day organisations like the UN Human Rights Council or Amnesty International!

In fact, the commander of the RAF at the time, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Harris (nicknamed 'Bomber' Harris for obvious reasons) who ordered the bombing of Dresden is recorded in a 1977 BBC interview as saying that if he had to he would do it again.

Even more significant than Harris's assertion was his claim that carpet bombing of German cities was not his idea.  It was, he said (quote) "already Government policy" (unquote). He stated in that interview "I lived in a shower of directives from the day I took over to the last day of war. The directive when I took over was that I was to ...blast the German cities as a whole."

In 1945, after the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, official Japanese figures put the death toll at 118,661 civilians. Later estimates suggested the final toll was about 140,000 of Hiroshima's 350,000 population.

Of course, nobody called for an inquiry into the complete disregard by President Truman and the American government of the Human Rights of the innocent civilians of Hiroshima!

In 2009 Sri Lanka was facing a terrorist organisation that could well be compared to Hitler's Nazi regime. In defeating the LTTE, the government of Sri Lanka ended what was a horrible and devastating war in which many of its citizens had been killed by the LTTE’s war-fighters and suicide bombers - and restored peace to the country.

Nobody doubts that war is a nasty business - and whether it is conventional warfare or asymmetrical warfare, it inevitably results in casualties not only of military personnel but also of non-combatant civilians (as happened in Dresden, Hiroshima and Sri Lanka)

But utilizing the current Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Sri Lanka to lecture the host nation on how it should have conducted the war and attempting to threaten and bully the country serves no useful purpose. When it comes from a British Prime Minister like David Cameron it smacks of hypocrisy.

Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbot and New Zealand's PM John Key adopted a more pragmatic and commendable approach – accepting that the Sri Lankan government fought and destroyed a terrorist organization that had terrorized the country. Now is the time to support the Sri Lankan government as it seeks to maintain peace, effect reconciliation and restore prosperity to a nation unencumbered by war.

Abbot’s straight talking yesterday showed up the hypocrisy of the British approach.

What a pity Canadian PM Stephen Harper decided not to attend!