The World

So have we finally seen the evidence that it is indeed possible to win a military victory in the war on terror? The Sri Lankan government of Mahinda Rajapaska certainly seems to have achieved something like that. Over weeks of intensive and gruelling fighting, it gradually pinned back the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) into a smaller and smaller pocket of land – finally killing the Tigers’ legendary leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran.

These developments have been greeted as a triumph in Colombo – but with unease in much of the west. The Sri Lankans, for their part, are angry about what they regard as European sympathy for a terrorist organisation. Earlier this month Carl Bildt, the widely-respected Swedish foreign minister, was denied a visa to visit Sri Lanka. And a couple of days ago, demonstrators in Colombo stoned the British embassy and burned an effigy of David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, in protest at Britain’s alleged sympathy with the LTTE.

Western unease about events in Sri Lanka is interesting. For there is no doubt that the Tigers were/are an organisation that used terrorism – pioneering the tactic of suicide bombing and revealing extreme brutality through much of Sri Lanka’s long civil war. The US often goes after terrorists with maximum force when they feel threatened – witness the current US drone attacks on the tribal areas of Pakistan.

And yet the unease remains for two good reasons. First, the level of civilian casualties. The FT this morning cites the figure of 20,000 dead or wounded civilians. Second, the feeling that no victory won with this level of bloodshed is likely really to be the end of the matter.