This article by Robert Kaplan in the Atlantic discusses the lessons of the Sri Lankan government’s victory over the Tamil Tigers, and bizarrely tries to use them to explain why the U.S. shouldn’t engage in the same practices against the Taliban in Afghanistan (and Pakistan).
The thing is, Sri Lanka’s government (representing the ethnic majority, which is not an excuse for its behavior) was engaged in a civil war, while the war in Afghanistan is an invasion by the U.S. To equate Tamil Tigers :: Sri Lanka to Taliban :: U.S. Marines is to somehow imply that the Taliban are trying to secede from the United States. Or it’s an effort to fill a column on deadline. Either way, please re-write.
I’ve always thought Kaplan was a bit too self-congratulatory in his writing and too much the self-appointed authority on countries and in matters he’s alighted on for a good two or three weeks.
v.