A military defeat of an insurgency

Wall Street Journal:

For all those who argue that there's no military solution for terrorism, we have two words: Sri Lanka.

This week, the Sri Lankan army said it had captured the last piece of the northern Jaffna Peninsula, one of the few remaining strongholds of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a terrorist organization that has waged a 26-year civil war that's claimed tens of thousands of lives, including those of a Sri Lankan President and an Indian Prime Minister.

That's a huge turnaround from only three years ago, when the Tigers effectively controlled the bulk of the Northern and Eastern Provinces and were perpetrating suicide bombings in the country's capital, Colombo.

Credit goes to the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has made eliminating the Tigers a priority and invested resources to make it happen. Military spending has surged to $1.7 billion for fiscal 2009, roughly 5% of GDP and nearly 20% of the government's budget.

The expanded Sri Lankan army is now equipped to employ sophisticated counterinsurgency strategies -- such as a multifront attack and quick raids behind Tiger lines. In 2007, the army won its first significant victory by pacifying the Tamil-Muslim-majority Eastern Province, historically a Tiger stronghold. Local and provincial elections were held there last year. The military offensive will now turn to Mullaittivu, the last district controlled by the Tigers in the Northern Province.

This string of victories is a shock to those who thought this conflict, which has political origins, could have only a political solution. The violence started in 1983, ostensibly over Tamil grievances with a Sinhalese-majority government that made Sinhala the country's official language and doled out economic favors to the Sinhalese, who are Buddhist, including preferences for government jobs and schooling. Devolution of power to the provinces has long been floated as the best political fix.

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This should not be a surprise, but it always seems to be to the left. The fact is that most insurgencies are defeated. They do take longer to defeat that a war involving major combat operations. But when I see people making statements like the current British Foreign Secretary, that it was a mistake to engageal Qaeda militarily, I know he is ignorant of history and putting his hopes in the vain expectation of negotiating with nihilist.