It is axiomatic that one must not bite off more than one can chew. Prabhakaran did not heed this truism and got his jaw shifted in the Vanni. He let his hubris get the better of him and opened many a front unnecessarily. Hadn't he cooked his goose by taking on the IPKF and killing Rajiv, he wouldn't have been in the present predicament running from bunker to bunker for dear life.

The government, too, seems to be oblivious to its limitations. Its propagandists are having a field day at the expense of two foreign ambassadors accused of overstepping their diplomatic limits and talking out of turn. A minister joined the party yesterday unleashing as he did a scathing attack on those envoys in the state media.

Among the honourable members of the diplomatic community in Colombo there are some bad eggs known for their arrogance and penchant for meddling with the internal affairs of this country as if they were a bunch of viceroys. Some of them are typical ambassadorial busybodies doing nothing but talking the hind legs off a donkey against this country. And they deserve to be taken down a peg or two once in a way lest they should mistake Sri Lanka for a vassal state.

However, at this juncture it is foolhardy for the government to fight more than one enemy at a time. Its focus must remain on the military front and nothing else. The armed forces are poised for a crucial thrust into Mullaitivu. And the die is cast! Efforts of hostile ambassadors and LTTE backers to scuttle the war effort have manifestly come a cropper. So, why should the government hasten to lock horns with diplomatic imbeciles and cast itself in bad light internationally?

The government ought to realise that it is not faring well on the diplomatic front. By kicking up rows with foreign diplomats at this hour, it will only play into the hands of the rogue envoys and the Tiger backers working overtime to turn world opinion against this country.