Morning Brief: The end of the Tigers?

Mon, 05/18/2009 - 8:22am

TOP STORY: Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Tamil Tiger rebellion, was reported killed today as the Sri Lankan government declared victory in Asia's longest-running civil war. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is expected to formally announced the end of the 25-year war on Tuesday.

There had been reports that the remaining Tigers had been planning to commit mass suicide, but the rebels vowed to lay down their arms yesterday, saying that the fighting had reached its "bitter end" and that they did not want to give the government more excuses for killing Tamil civilians. The United Nations says that at least 7,000 have died since January.

The defeat is a stunning fall for the Tigers, who controlled a third of the island's territory as little as two years ago, but the rebels have previously vowed that if they lost the conventional war, they would return to their guerilla roots. 

MUST READ: The New York Times looks at how the Obama administration's nuclear nonproliferation push may be at odds with its military support for Pakistan. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen said last week that Pakistan continues to add to is nuclear arsenal even as the Taliban advances.

Asia

Middle East

Africa

  • Rwanda's government says it will not participate in U.N. peace efforts in Eastern Congo until the Security Council cracks down on Hutu rebels.
  • Chad's government says it has stopped airstrikes against Chadian rebels in Sudan.
  • A Darfur rebel leader accused of war crimes will voluntarily appear before the International Criminal Court at the Hague.

Europe

  • EU Commerce Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite has been elected as Lithuania's first woman president. 
  • Swine flu is dominating the agenda at the World Health Organization's annual meeting in Geneva. 
  • France's minister of economic recovery says his country is four months ahead of the rest of Europe's recovery efforts.

Americas

Ishara S. KODIKARA/AFP/Getty Images
Joshua Keating | Permalink | | Comments? Login or register
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Mission Creep in Afghanistan

by CHForbesSr on Tue, 05/19/2009 - 2:25am

When we get into armed hostilities anywhere, reality sets in, and our forces find themselves diverted from their original objective. Afghanistan is a classic case in point. Although it is true that better advance planning could help to avoid some of this, it's even more true that actual operating realities bring innumerable unpredicted complications into the situation, which must be dealt with. If this seems obvious, why did General Colin Powell find it necessary to enunciate his Powell Doctrine? In a sense, this clear doctrine stands as a professional's protest against the unrealistic goal setting, poor planning, under manning, and absence of exit strategy that has typified most of our recent conflicts. One of the most determinant consequences of these episodes has been mission creep. Our commanders and their civilian bosses have always scrambled to patch together solutions for the realities of a poorly planned, poorly anticipated operation. Now we hear people asking, do we really want to get Bin Laden? What are we here for? Nation building in both Afghanistan and Pakistan? Building schools? Righting the wrongs of the Taliban? What is the mission? What is the exit strategy?