Hysterical accusations of our troops firing `heavy weapons’ into the `No Fire Zone’ with astronomical casualty figures given by Doctors in the LTTE controlled area [who are technically State Officers but follow the orders of the LTTE] and indignant denials by our Forces have now become the order of the day.

The LTTE which continues fighting and prolongs the conflict only because they hope some Western Countries [who with supreme arrogance style themselves the "International Community"] with or without India will intervene in the conflict and bail them out, have much to gain by concocting such atrocity stories – indeed that is the only means they have of saving their necks. Our Forces too must, perforce, deny such accusations even if they are true, both to keep their honour intact as well as to stave off such interference.

How does one determine what the truth is? In order to get at the truth, we must necessarily start by considering the facts of which there is no doubt i. e. those that are not in dispute.

The first such fact is that the LTTE is cornered in an ever-shrinking small pocket of land [which, according to TamilNet, is now about 7 Square Kilometres] and includes the No Fire Zone.

The second is that our Forces, and particularly our infantrymen have been fighting ceaselessly for weeks on end to capture that small pocket and decapitate the LTTE once and for all, taking a considerable number of casualties in the process.

The third is that our Forces are fighting long hours in dreadful conditions in the inhospitable terrain of the Wanni which has been liberally strewn with land mines and booby traps by the LTTE’

The fourth is that our Forces are naturally anxious to finish off the LTTE and end the conflict [in which many of them have lost their limbs and many of their colleagues and friends, their lives] as soon as possible.

The fifth is that our Forces have more than enough fire power in the form of Jet Aircraft, Helicopter Gunships, Multi Barrelled Rocket Launchers, Long Range Artillery and Mortars of all sizes [a considerable quantity of which was captured from the LTTE] and Naval Attack Craft to `flatten’ that pocket of land and end the armed conflict within a few hours without risking their lives and limbs, without crossing a single mine field or facing a single LTTE shell, bullet or suicide cadre. Why did they not, like the American and British Forces did, when they invaded Iraq on the proven false pretext of there being weapons of mass destruction in that Country, wait under cover while unleashing a ceaseless artillery barrage and a spate of aerial bombing raids on Baghdad, unparalleled in the history of war, with not an iota of concern for the civilians of that city, remain in the safety of their bunkers and flatten that pocket of land with the awesome weaponry at their disposal ?

The answer is clear, it is because the Security Forces are composed of disciplined and humane gentlemen and gentlewomen and not of gutless, soulless butchers like the forces of those who now have the impertinence to preach to us. It is because, unlike those sanctimonious preachers from the west, they prefer to suffer hardship and even to sacrifice their lives and limbs rather than harm a single civilian.

While the likes of Milliband, Kouchner, Ban Ki Moon, Clinton, Advani, Chidambaram and the obese duo of Karunanidhi and Jayalalitha mouth all kinds of hypocritical words about their `humanitarian concern’ for the Tamil civilians trapped in that pocket of land, it is only our Forces who have displayed a genuine concern for them, not by mere words with an eye on the electorate, but by deed and the sacrifice of their lives and limbs to save those civilians. Yet, none of these foul hypocrites who have had the audacity to preach to us has had the decency (obviously a quality to which they are allergic) to give any credit whatsoever to our troops for their exemplary services to humanity.