Category Anti-war

Sharif Abdullah on Sri Lanka

Dr. Sharif Abdullah, Executive Director of the Commonway Instutute in Portland, Oregon, is currently on the ground in Sri Lanka.  He offers this perspective: In a recent article, the fair and objective “International Crisis Group” (ICG) laid out the problem…

Why Sri Lanka Burns, Part III

Given the position of Sri Lanka’s Tamils as a minority on the island and a pawn in the struggle between competing groups of the majority Sinhalese, the Tamils have legitimate grievances against the government.  But despite its claims, the LTTE’s…

Why Sri Lanka Burns, Part II

The most troubling aspect of Sri Lanka’s Sinhala-Tamil conflict is that it’s a secondary conflict, and there is no possibility of peace until the primary conflict is identified and understood. The primary conflict actually has nothing to do with the Tamils–…

Why Sri Lanka burns, Part I

(AP photo.) Recently, I posted here about the current slaughter in Sri Lanka– tens of thousands of civilians killed because neither side will let them leave the battlefield.  In response, one reader called my “evenhandedness” “insipid.”  He ascribes to the party…

Antiwar protests yesterday. Turnout small

The numbers were underwhelming. Only about 4,000 each in LA and SF, and thousands (not the usual tens of thousands) at the main protest in DC. The SF Chronicle said the turnout was “massive” in SF but then said the…