Sri Lanka is finally defeating the Tamil Tigers who are compressed into a small enclave where the Tigers hold civilians as shields against Sri Lankan fire power.
And what does our sainted international community do? Condemn the Sri Lankan government for winning:
Sri Lanka on Saturday rejected U.N. allegations it may have committed war crimes and vowed there would be no cease-fire in its drive to capture a shrinking rebel enclave and end the island's 25-year-old civil war.
A report Friday from U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said government forces and Tamil rebels also warned that civilian casualties could reach "catastrophic" proportions if the two sides do not suspend fighting.
Pillay said the situation was becoming desperate and called for a halt in the fighting.
I will never understand why some people in this country have such an elevated view of the holiness of the international community, dragged down in its ethics to those of its worst thug states, and such a poor view of our constitutional republic's ability to choose to do the right thing.
The Tigers are desperate for a halt to the fighting to hand on by their finger nails or to get time to hide assets, go underground to fight a guerrilla or terrorist campaign, or escape to India or further abroad to live to kill another day. This the Sri Lankans know well:
Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said a cease-fire would "breathe life into the terrorists" by giving the rebels time to recover from a series of devastating defeats that have seen them lose vast amounts of territory and fighters.
Sri Lanka is wisely ignoring the UN and going for the throat to destroy as much of the Tigers as they can before they can disperse and escape.
Our State Department, in its infinite wisdom, settled for a moral equivalence stance on the war:
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called President Mahinda Rajapaksa to express "deep U.S. concern" over deteriorating conditions and increasing loss of life in the safe zones, a State Department statement said.
It said Clinton told Rajapaksa his soldiers should not fire into the civilian areas.
Clinton also condemned the rebels for using civilians as shields against government attacks and shooting civilians who try to leave.
Our State Department: Resetting relations with the world. Under President Bush I saw friends and allies. Today we seem determined to slight or annoy our friends from Europe to Asia.
