Dear Mr. Ambassador,

Permit me to offer Your Excellency my sincere congratulations on your elevation to the higher post of Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs. Your Excellency will agree that it’s giant leap from presiding over American interests in Sri Lanka to the tangled mess of macro complexities raging in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and, of course, Sri Lanka which, though a speck on the global radar screen, is also fraught with multiple ramifications as the others.

Despite the knotty, humongous and intertwining problems piling up in Your Excellency’s IN tray, awaiting your arrival in Washington, I think it would be a cliché to say that you have been transferred to a larger mine field. I think it is more like jumping from the Sri Lankan swimming pool into the Indian Ocean soon after the tsunami hit the region.

This, of course, compels me to commiserate with you. Though I am glad that an experienced Asian hand is taking over the reins of "the most dangerous place on earth" (President Obama) I am afraid that in the days ahead Your Excellency will be forced to live on daily diets of valium sandwiches between breakfast and dinner times and sleeping pills at bed times. Your nightmare is about to begin and I can only wish you all the best in your efforts to save the South Asian region which has the potential of being the first place, since Hiroshima, to go up in nuclear flames if (absit omen!) the Talibans get hold of the nuclear arsenal in Pakistan.

Sensing the coming events, President Obama has, quite astutely, shifted his focus from Iraq to Afghanistan and has decided to back the Pakistani army to fight America’s proxy war against the Talibans. Following this lead Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, castigated Pakistan for "abdicating" power to the Talibans. She is now going all out to eliminate the Talibans in the Swat (no pun intended) Valley and elsewhere in the region.

She is determined to push America’s war against Talibans to a finish though she comments adversely on Sri Lankan efforts to do what she is doing in Afghanistan. For instance, the joint air strikes of American drones and Pakistani air force targeting Taliban bases have in the very first days killed 100 civilians, including school children. Your Excellency will note that the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) has not issued a statement against this though, I presume, it will never forget the statements issued by White House and other Western capitals when the Air Force targeted a Tiger camp in Sencholai packed with young recruits training to fight in Velupillai Prabhakaran’s futile war. 

One of the glaring inconsistencies of US policy has been its on-again-off-again policy towards Sri Lanka’s fight against terrorism, underscored by a holier-than-thou attitude. It has increased its pressure in the last days when the military offensive is about to complete its mission of defeating for the first time a terrorist group which had attained the status of a pseudo-state with an army, navy and an air force. By any standard, defeating the Tigers is a remarkable achievement considering the fact that the US and its allies did not back it the way they are now backing the Pakistani offensive against Talibans.

Comparing the two offensives will throw some light on the daunting complexities of the region. The Pakistani people, for instance, are not behind their leaders in the war against Talibans like the way Sri Lankans are behind President Mahinda Rajapakse in the war against the Tigers. Analysts are doubtful whether the stop-go tactics of the Pakistani army will succeed in taming the Talibans. On the contrary, the non-stop war against the Tamil Tigers stands as an exemplary success and any move to pause at this critical stage will set a bad precedent for those combating terrorism in the region. Nor will a pause serve the Tamil civilians trapped in Prabhakaran’s gulag and peace.

Sri Lanka has also demonstrated that grass root support is indispensable to anyone engaged in terrorist wars. President Pervez Musharraf had to pay dearly for being too close to the Americans. The same threat hangs over the current leaders and Navaz Shariff is trying to maintain a fine balance between the Talibans and the Americans. President Hamid Karzai, dubbed as a stooge of the Americans, has only 15% support. In contrast, President Rajapakse is leaping ahead by distancing himself from the West and carving out an independent path. He has succeeded in beating pro-West Ranil Wickremesinghe hands down by being loyal to the grassroots and keeping the foreign interlopers at arms length.

Sri Lanka, with all its infirmities, is also a well-established democracy. Pakistan and Afghanistan, plagued by internal and external terrorists, are struggling to keep their head above the rising waters of divisive and brutal violence. The future of democracy in both countries is hanging in the balance.

The Swat Valley agreement signed by the Pakistan government to appease the Talibans, giving them the right to run it according to sharia law, is in tatters like Wickremesinghe’s Ceasefire Agreement sponsored by the West. Like the Tigers in Sri Lanka the Talibans used it to consolidate their power and extend their firepower to neighbouring regions. 

So Your Excellency will agree that President Rajapakse has made it easy for you to grasp the hard realities of combating terrorism. He stands out as the role model for any democratic leader who intends fighting terrorists to a finish.

Terrorism is a menace that comes from diverse sources in S. Asia. In Afghanistan they are called Taliban. In Sri Lanka they are called Tamil Tigers. What’s in a name? A terrorist by another name remains the same. Their modus operandi, their divisive political goals, their fanaticism, their opposition to democracies, their disregard for civilized norms, their tactics of destabilizing societies, their immediate objective of striking terror into the hearts of people to eliminate dissent and threats from rival parties, their utter disrespect for humane values and human lives are shared in common by them as if they are partners in the Crimes Against Humanity Inc.

Finding excuses for terrorists is the bane of our time. Our ideologues and moralists invent phrases and rationales to exculpate some terrorists and not the others, depending on how it affects them. For instance, if a bomb goes off in Oxford Street, London, Prime Minister Gordon Brown runs to boost the strength of British forces in Afghanistan saying that eliminating the Talibans in far away Kabul makes the streets of London safe. But does he care two hoots about the civilians killed in the streets of Colombo by Tamil Tiger terrorists? On the contrary, he wants to stop the war in the north, presumably because it frees the streets of London of traffic jams and reduces the high cost of policing.

Clearly, any attempt to fly by double standards is bound to boomerang with serious consequences to peace. A policy that turns a blind eye to one set of terrorists in one place and then goes all out to exterminate them in another is as suicidal as delivering only one of the twins leaving the other in the womb.

Besides, there is no excuse for terrorism in a democracy where freedom to make political changes is recognized as a legitimate instrument and institutionalized as the norm. Terrorism, however, may be valid in authoritarian societies where oppressive regimes deny fundamental rights suppressing by force any grass root moves for change.

The new threats to the region from terrorism make it clear that much depends on Your Excellency’s next moves as the new US head of South Asia. Your success will be the success of the region. Saving the region from terrorism and stabilizing it as a viable and vibrant regional alliance, no doubt, will be on the top of your agenda. But fighting the ruthless Talibans poses a critical question: Will Your Excellency fight fire with fire? Or will you fight with only text books on human rights? I don’t think the Talibans have much respect for the latter. I am intrigued and I will be monitoring your progress to assess how you will balance your morality with reality.

My bet is that reality will triumph over morality and, unlike you and your Western colleagues, I won’t blame you for that because the overwhelming power of reality invariably triumphs over morality. That is the eternal law which even a mighty super-power like America cannot overcome. Besides, students of foreign affairs will agree that they have a better chance of finding a lost rat’s tooth on the bed of the Atlantic Ocean than morality in foreign policies of super powers.

Perhaps, you may agree that American foreign policy has failed whenever it pursued interests of instant gratification and not the long-term gains. America also has failed to set in motion a cohesive, comprehensive and collective strategy to combat terrorism which is a hydra-headed monster. It has to be fought on a global scale, with global partners without shedding crocodile tears over issues that strengthen and provide loopholes for terrorists to escape and fight another day. It has failed to recognize that victory over terrorism in any one place is a victory over terrorism in other parts as well.

Tiger terrorism is a part of a global network, transferring technology, know-how and producing role models for terrorists in other places. Just the other day (May 04) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that "the current situation in Sri Lanka can also affect security situation in India."

"Today, there is lack of peace and stability in our neighbouring nations, be it Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It can also affect security situation in our country," he added.

Your Excellency knows only too well that terrorism, manifesting itself in many hues and garbs, is the dreaded spectre haunting the region. Defeating terrorism in any part of South Asia is a plus for the region as a whole. The total commitment of America enables Pakistan to fight with two hands unlike Sri Lanka which won with one of its hand tied behind its back by the hired moralists/pundits whose self-serving and politicized agenda of human rights were linked in devious ways to give the upper hand to the Tamil Tigers.

With all the tragic inevitabilities common to all wars it can be argued in hindsight that GOSL forces have waged a comparatively clean war, if there is such a thing. And yet America has joined hands with Britain to block the $1.9 billion IMF loan, the bulk of which will go for rehabilitation of the Tamil people. Can this serve the needs of the Tamil civilians? Or peace? Or regional stability? And in what critical respects do Pakistan differ from Sri Lanka? The latest reports reveal that the Talibans are brazenly imitating the Tiger tactic of hiding behind human shields. Will America call for a "humanitarian pause"? We know the answer. Why spell it out!

The moral and political dilemmas faced by Sri Lanka are not much different from those faced by America, or Pakistan. Despite the legalized Geneva conventions, despite the lofty goals of Gandhian non-violence and despite Michael Walzerian idealism, using all available weapons and forces against those who threaten national interests comes naturally to all leaders and President Obama is no exception. In the Baghavad Gita, the sacred book of the Hindus which first raised the morality of killing in times of war, it is even rated as a "duty". If President Obama fails in his "duty" the accusation of running away from the "3.a.m. call" (Ms. Clinton) will come to haunt him forever.  America, the mightiest power on earth, will never forgive him for committing that sin of omission.

However, the need of the hour is to find experts in combating terrorism. Your Excellency is well qualified to claim that you have graduated from the Sri Lankan school of terrorism – the best there is in the world. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has virtually written a text book on the art of fighting terrorism, even though it was written with one hand tied behind his back.

Sri Lanka produced the deadliest terrorists in the world. It has also produced the best army in the world to deal with those terrorists. Where else could Your Excellency have gained such knowledge?

And after such knowledge what forgiveness?