It may be easier to trace Prabhakaran than to find a politician opposed to the on-going successful war. Everybody has jumped the bandwagon! Time was when a person who had the courage to advocate military action against terrorism was as rare as an honest politician. The pro-LTTE propaganda campaign was so powerful that only a few dared utter a word against terrorism. They were immediately branded as chauvinists or racists or extremists. The NGO fraternity and the various LTTE fronts had effectively drilled into people's heads that Prabhakaran was invincible and the only way to deal with him was to appease him. So, everybody was talking of peace, though nobody knew how to achieve it.

Even UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe is full of praise for the armed forces and the police today. The recapture of Mullaitivu has prompted him to send a congratulatory message to, of all people, the Chief of Defence Staff Air Vice Marshal Donald Perera. Why he did not think it proper to congratulate Army Commander Lt. General Sarath Fonseka personally on that historic victory is the question.

If the UNP leader, when he was Prime Minister from 2001 to 2004, had realised that the Sri Lankan armed forces had the potential to achieve such heroic feats as capturing Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu, and acted accordingly, the LTTE would have been defeated a few years ago and the military would have suffered much less damage. For, it was during the Norwegian crafted CFA that the LTTE made grand preparations for the so-called Eelam War IV, which is being brought to a decisive end at present. Prabhakaran abused the truce to recruit thousands of combatants, to raise funds by way of illegal taxes on A-9 etc to the tune of millions of rupees a day and to smuggle in shiploads of arms and ammunition, while the UNF government did nothing for the military unlike the previous UNP regimes under which the security forces had graduated from ceremonial outfits to fully-fledged combat forces.

Had the LTTE been kept under constant military pressure, it would not have been able to construct so well fortified defences such as massive earth bunds, motes and bunkers. True, by the time the UNF formed a government, the LTTE had smashed the army's defences and reached the outskirts of Jaffna after capturing Elephant Pass in 2000 but it could not proceed beyond that point and its gains could have been reversed if a determined effort had been made by the UNF.

Instead, the UNF allowed the LTTE to consolidate its power not only in the North but also in the Eastern Province on the pretext of 'doing political work' even after Prabhakaran had unilaterally suspended peace talks.

That Prabhakaran never wanted peace could be seen from the way he prepared for war during that period. But, the UNF was convinced otherwise.

Since the LTTE resumed hostilities by capturing the Mavil Aru anicut and war erupted in 2006, the military has had to pay dearly for the concessions Prabhakaran got from the UNF government. Prabhakaran is manifestly dipping into stocks of arms and ammunition he received during the truce and raining mortar fire on the advancing troops. The Army Commander told this newspaper after Kilinochchi was captured that 12,000 of his men and officers had sustained injuries due to heavy mortar and artillery fire.

In defeating terrorism, the military has had to overcome resistance not only from the LTTE but also from some Opposition top guns.

When the army cleared the last LTTE stronghold in the East, Thoppigala, the Opposition Leader famously said it was only a jungle implying that it was not worth taking and sought to give the ground commanders lessons on map reading. Some of his coalition partners including the SLFP dissidents claimed the LTTE was retreating according to a secret pact with the government and challenged the government to take war to Kilinochchi if it dared. They ridiculed and trifled the battlefield gains of the military at every turn.

While the army was fighting tooth and nail at Kilinochchi against tremendous odds including rain, floods and stiff resistance from the LTTE, some Opposition politicians acted as if they wished to see the troops get bogged down and perish so that the Vanni offensive would boomerang on the government. One of them derisively said the army was heading for Medawachchi and Pamankada while claiming to fight for Kilinochchi and Alimankada (Elephant Pass). Perhaps they took Prabhakaran too seriously when he told an Indian magazine that if President Rajapaksa was thinking of retaking Kilinochchi he was only daydreaming.

It was only after the Kilinochchi victory that the inveterate critics of the war effort began to sing hosannas for the armed forces whose defeat they wished in secret. Now that the troops have bagged Mullaitivu and are forging ahead to finish off the LTTE, Opposition politicians are falling over themselves to congratulate the military! Some NGO pundits who, a few moons ago, argued that the LTTE could never be defeated are already discussing what should be done after the war is over!

People change. Karuna has sided with the State he tried to destroy. Mangala has joined the UNP which he once went all out to ruin. Karu Jayasuriya, who joined the government because of a much advertised desire to see an end to terrorism, has returned to the UNP's fold before the war is over. Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who sacked the UNF government, now regrets her action and has joined forces with the UNP. So, the fact that UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, who opposed war, is now praising the military for its victories should not surprise anyone.