Terrorists have to be lucky only once. No amount of checks and raids will be sufficient to bring terror strikes to a complete halt. All that they need to wreak havoc is a single bomb. Not even the military super powers have succeeded in preventing terrorist attacks. New York and London have become as vulnerable to terror attack as little Colombo, which has, to its credit, at least developed a remarkable immunity to the germ of terror. Yesterday’s attack made only ripples and not waves in the city. The people went about their business as usual after a pause to check what had happened. After the debris is cleared and the road reopened, the people will put the blast behind them. How many of them can remember the year of the Central Bank attack? The people have mastered the art of living with terror. Prabhakaran has been their guru!

It is not so much the military might that is essential for battling terrorism effectively but the resilience of a nation. Unleashing unbridled terror at regular intervals is the biggest mistake that Prabhakaran has made in his struggle, as we have pointed out in these columns previously. He has been exploding bombs like cheenapataas during the past so many years and they have ceased to be efficacious enough to frighten the people into submission.

The late Anton Balasingham, who was the LTTE’s ideologue, a few months before the resumption of hostilities and the commencement of the present phase of the war boasted that the outfit was planning to use a deadly device in its war against the State. Some thought it had procured a stock of crude chemical bombs. Although that possibility cannot be ruled out, given the LTTE’s links with arms dealers the world over, the remote controlled claymore mine could have been the gadget that Balasingham bragged about at that time. For, a few months after Balasingham’s announcement, the LTTE started targeting armed forces with claymore mines in a far bigger way than before. Initially, the LTTE managed to unsettle the Rajapaksa government with a spate of such attacks. But, with the passage of time, the mines lost their magic and today the LTTE is being given a taste of its own medicine in the Wanni by the army long rangers and the breakaway groups.

Similarly, the LTTE has compelled the military to upgrade its weapons systems. The LTTE unveiled its MBRLs in the North in 2000 and used them with devastating effect on the armed forces to walk right up to the outskirts of Jaffna. The army had no alternative but to procure a bigger version of MBRLs, with which it is pounding LTTE targets, perhaps making the outfit rue the day it acquired that capability. The LTTE also forced the Navy to acquire sonar equipment and the SLAF to go for anti-missile systems. Finally, the LTTE unveiled its crude air wing and the State hurriedly purchased air defence systems. There are no more joy rides for Air Tigers over Colombo.

The LTTE would have achieved its objective of bringing the State to its knees through military means, if the latter had stopped matching its capabilities. That is why the allies of the LTTE have been campaigning hard to pressure successive governments to cut down on defence expenditure and desist from waging a full scale war, but in vain. Today, a string of successful naval operations has put the kibosh on the LTTE’s arms smuggling operations. Almost all its rogue vessels engaged in gunrunning are believed to have been destroyed. It is faced with a severe dearth of arms and ammunition besides a massive manpower shortage. The Air Force is inflicting heavy damage on its hideouts and equipment. Information is said to be flowing from the LTTE-held areas facilitating successful air raids therein. The army is posed for marching on the LTTE stronghold.

The LTTE may still have the ability to launch devastating attacks as was evident from the spectacular foray into the Anuradhapura Airbase in April 2007. But, such attacks have happened in the past and they have not broken the will of the State to wage war. The armed forces have always bounced back. So has the morale of the people who abhor terrorism. Out of desperation, the LTTE has no alternative but to do more of what it has been doing all these years hoping for some deus ex machina. Hence, its small scale terror attacks like the one in Colombo yesterday.

What Prabhakaran should realise at least at this late stage is that this country will never be cowed into giving in to his terrorism. Even if he were to explode all his bombs simultaneously in Colombo, he wouldn’t still be able to achieve his goal of Eelam. The only way for him to avoid further bloodshed is to eschew violence and seek a negotiated settlement of the dispute. That is what the civilised world has been telling him to do all these years.