By: Elavalagan, July 6, 2015
There was a bloody war between North and South Vietnam. Another equally bloody war occurred between North and South Korea. But have you ever wondered why the warring divisions in Germany were the East and West, and not the North and South, as is the cases of Vietnam and Korea? If you look at the geography of these warring parties you can understand it is all about the war-playwrights, not the actors, like the people of Vietnam or Korea. In fact, an overwhelming number of so-called “civil wars” around the world were, and still are, foreign politico induced proxy wars, but conveniently labeled as ‘civil wars’.
In late February of 2012, American CBS news anchor Scott Pelley asked Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona (USA) “Senator, do you think the United States should play a role in getting arms to the rebels one way or another. How would that work?” The question was regarding the ongoing bloody war in Syria.
McCain, the Republican presidential candidate in 2008 who lost to Barak Obama, replied “Well, I think there’s a number of ways. For example, in Libya, without our direct involvement, there were arms that were obtained by the Libyan rebels. One of the ideas that has been floated is a kind of sanctuary that would allow people to train and equip. We don’t need to do that directly. But I think that there are ways to get arms to the resistance, and the Turks in the Arab League can play a very significant role.”
About two months later in late April of 2012, Lebanon detained Lutfallah II, a ship headed to Tripoli, Lebanon carrying 3 containers full of weapons for the Syrian anti-government militants. The ship carrying the arms had started its journey from Libya and stopped off in the Egyptian city of Alexandria along the way. The owner of this ship said initially he was asked to carry 12 containers.
A month later in May of 2012, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Arab League labeled the bloody conflict in Syria as a “Civil War”.
So, with the external provision of arms, should this be considered a “civil war”? I think not. Rather, it is a foreign politico-induced and controlled proxy war. That was the story in Vietnam, Korea, Syria, Sri Lanka etc.
In fact, on June 15, 2014, Germany Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier frankly stated that the international community “must prevent the outbreak of a proxy war between the regional powers on Iraqi soil”. What was he talking about? Indeed it was the war between the Sunnis and Shiites – a proxy way induced in Syria which later spilled into Iraq, creating unforeseen outcomes. As a result, once again the war-playwrights lost the war and were forced to become the players in Syria.
Proxy Wars of the Past
There are examples throughout history of powerful foreign politicos exploiting preexisting local conflicts in a foreign land, or even cleverly building wars. And undoubtedly the same proxy war stories will continue with only new characters.
It was more than 100 years ago when the need arose to have a waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The US politico aimed to construct a canal across the narrow land strip of the Panama region of Columbia. It was economically viable. But the State of Columbia rejected the terms and conditions placed by the US. In response, the US eventually took a shortcut. In 1903, the US politico under President Theodore Roosevelt, with the canal in mind, created a proxy war to separate Panama from Colombia by creating and supporting the so-called ‘rebel’. With the help of America, Panama was declared independent on November 3, 1903. And the canal building began. Was the war in Panama a civil war? Or rather, another successfully executed foreign politico-induced proxy war?
Proxy wars flourished after the end of World War II. It was the time of Cold War. During this period, superpowers of both sides directly or indirectly imposed Cold War ideologies and socio-economic systems into local political conflicts around the world. Most of these full-fledged, lengthy and bloody foreign proxy wars came to halt when the Cold War appeared to end in the early 1990s. The rest were forced to stop after the 9/11 attacks in New York.
Since the Soviet invasion in 1979, to its withdrawal in 1989, the war in Afghanistan consumed more than 2 million lives. Soviet politico supported the pro-Soviet side while the US, UK, Pakistan and Israel etc. supported the anti-Soviet Mujahedeen. President Reagan’s support to Mujahedeen was funneling through Pakistani Juntas like Zia ul-Haq. The West adopted Zia as a front line ally in the fight against the East. Zia came to power in Pakistan after a coup in 1977, and executed democratically elected PM Zulfikar Ali Butto in 1979. After the end of Cold War, the Mujahedeen became the Taliban and the fight against US broke and still continues.
The El Salvador proxy war between the leftist and the US-sponsored military government consumed more than 80,000 lives between 1960s and 1992. The US Politico, to no surprise, was heavily involved in this Central American proxy war.
The Guatemalan Civil War (from1960 to 1996) began when the US Politico engineered a coup against the elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman. One of the primary causes for the coup was to protect multinational corporations like the United Fruit Company of America, which was located in Guatemala. This proxy war consumed more than 200,000 lives.
Though American Politico had been involved in Nicaragua for a long time, in 1910 Major Smedley Butler and his team of US Marines arrived in Nicaragua to protect American interests. The proxy war here peaked during the Cold War in the 1960s and 70s. Later in 1980s, a CIA backed counter-revolution made things even worse.
The Korean War is another proxy war where the foreign politico also dragged into the battle fields. Japanese politico had invaded and ruled Koreans since 1910. But the other foreign politicos, the ‘Allis’ who liberated Korea from the Japanese politico, divided the Korean peninsula and induced the war and the division we see now. It was similar to dividing Germany along East/West ideologies. US lost more than 33,000 solders here. Lose of Chinese volunteer forces was estimated to be about 400,000. Even Mao Anying, the eldest son of Mao Zedong, was killed in the Korean war by a napalm bomb dropped on November 1950. This war caused between 2 to 3 million deaths. It was another foreign politico induced proxy war between the same people; people of the same race, speaking the same language, generally following the same religion etc.
Vietnam War was another costly foreign politico induced proxy war. This war also spilled into Laos and Cambodia. The total casualties of the Vietnam War range from 3 to 5 million. Like in Korea, here too the war was foreign politico induced between the same people; people of the same race, speaking the same language, following the same religion etc.
So, what happened in Sri Lanka? Was it a civil war or just another foreign politico induced proxy war? To understand the issue, let’s first look at the other proxy wars of that period in South Asia, specifically around India.
Proxy Wars of South Asia
India, a clear democracy from the days of independence, wanted to maintain a non-alignment role during the Cold War. However, the military enrichment of Pakistan by the American politico through the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) made this impossible. SEATO was created in 1954 to contain communism in Asia – especially China. The Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) was created in 1955 to contain USSR in the Middle East, which forced India to align with USSR to obtain military corporations. As a result, Indo-Soviet Treaty of Pease, Friendship and Cooperation was created between India and the Soviet Union in August of 1971. And within four months, this corporation gave the most needed of benefits to India in the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971 – the war that turned East Pakistan into a new nation of Bangladesh in 13 days.
During the Pakistani election of 1970/71, the East Pakistan-centric Awami League party won a simple majority with 160 seats, all of them from East Pakistan (total of 162 seats with its alliance). The West Pakistan-centric Pakistan People’s Party won only 81 seats, and all of them from West Pakistan (total of 138 seats with its alliance). Still, the American politico supported West Pakistan, and refused to give ruling power to an East-centric party. Frustrated, the East started working on separation from the West. West Pakistan deployed its army to depress the brutally. Even Archer Kent Blood, the American diplomat in the East Pakistan, called it genocide. East Pakistan, under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, declared independence on March 26, 1971.
On March 27th of 1971, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi gave full support for the independence call of East Pakistan. India started training and arming pro-East Pakistanis and their war against locally stationed West Pakistani forces. Indian politico had a clear expectation in this war outcome: split Pakistan and make East Pakistan a separate country. In India’s point of view that made sense. For India, Pakistan was to be an enemy for the foreseeable future, of that there was no debate. So it made sense to make the enemy half the size.
But that was not the case in relation to Sri Lanka. Indo-Lanka relationship had enough room for the good and bad. Therefore India had no reason to cut Sri Lanka into two pieces the way it did Pakistan. But of course Indian politico was ready to divide-and-conquer the communities in Sri Lanka – after the cold-war enemy America landed at the gate. And that is what Indian politico did. Tamils in Sri Lanka were not wise enough to understand that for India, Northern/Eastern Sri Lanka and East Pakistan were not even comparable. Eventually Sri Lankan Tamils learned the lesson after paying for a bloody war.
On December 3rd of 1971, Pakistani Air Force (PAF) launched a preemptive attack on 11 air bases in Northwest India under the name of “Operation Chengiz Kan”, the start of the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971. US Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager was assigned to assist PAF. Indira Gandhi called it “a declaration of war” and responded with counter air strikes on the same day.
A bevy of Middle Eastern counties continued to supply Pakistan with military hardware to reinforce PAF; supersonic interceptor F-104s from Jordan, air-to-air combat capable transonic F-86s from Saudi Arabia, F-5s from Libya etc. Most of these supplies were later reimbursed by the US politico. American President Richard Nixon and his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger feared the Soviet influence in South Asia.
When Pakistan’s defeat in the eastern theater became certain, President Nixon directed a 75,000 ton aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, into the Bay of Bengal with Task Force 74. This massive deployment also included guided missile cruiser USS King, guided missile destroyers USS Decatur, USS Parsons, USS Tartar Sam. All of them reached the Bay of Bengal on December 11, 1971. The theater was set for war.
But the Soviets were also on the move to the Indian Ocean – the biggest socialist; a non-democracy went to defend the largest democracy from the proudest democracy. Under provisions of Indo-Soviet treaty, the Soviets were obligated to defend India from external aggression.
On December 6th, Soviet Union directed its cruisers, destroyers and a nuclear powered submarine with nuclear missiles to the Indian Ocean under the command of Admiral Vladimir Kruglyakov.
On December 16 of 1971, Eastern Command of the Pakistani forces surrendered and the war was ended. Up to 3 million lives were lost in this short-lived war.
But the confrontation between India and the western-backed West Pakistan did not end with the birth of Bangladesh. It was just reborn into militaristic Punjab insurgency, a proxy war that was very much comparable to Tamil insurgency in Sri Lanka. The Anandpur Sahib Resolution of 1973 was there, the Vaddukkoddai Resolution of 1976 was here. Khalistan was there, Tamil Eelam was here. The Pakistani politico proxy war was there, Indian politico proxy war was here. India was condemning Pakistan of supporting terrorists there, while Sri Lanka was condemning India of supporting terrorists here. The ISI (Inter-Service Intelligence) was there, RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) was here. The similarities even continued with Diasporas’ of Punjabis and Tamils – especially in how some made a personal fortune using the issue they abandoned and left behind.
On June 23 of 1985, Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747, from Montreal, Canada to Delhi, India was bombed over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 329 people. The bomb was planted by Canadian Sikhs. How Canadian law handled this matter was just opposite to how it handled Al Qaida affiliated groups. Valuable evidence was destroyed faster in the first case while the evidence was implanted in the second case. In his verdict, Justice Ian Josephson called destroying of 100s of wiretaps as “unacceptable negligence”. And even that verdict came in only 2005, 20 long years since the disaster. In front of more than 4000 followers in Madison Square Garden in New York, Bagri, a Canadian suspect in Flight 182, had said “…until we kill 50,000 Hindus, we will not rest” on 28 of July 1984. But the US and Canadian law enforcement looked other way.
Enemy India’s enemies fast became friends of the West. Politicos of both sides actively started to prop-up and nurture enemies.
India’s western front was covered by Pakistan, the eastern front was just lost to India’s lukewarm ally Bangladesh, the northern front was unavailable to any party since it was mostly under China’s control, leaving the southern front of India. That is where Sri Lanka came in.
The Sri Lankan Proxy War
The bloody war in Sri Lanka, the island on the southern tip of India, lasted more than 30 years and consumed over 100,000 lives, most of whom were Tamils. Indeed it was another foreign politico induced proxy war in South Asia. It was a war induced by the cold war rival American politico, and the pro-Soviet Indian politico. The people of Sri Lanka were dragged into uncharted territory.
Sri Lanka was just another third-world country with all the good and bad. Dirty and cheap politics by the uneducated (but well studied) politicians were based on race, religion etc. but not economy, innovation etc. Can one expect third-world politicians to talk about landing on the moon or sending a satellite to space? These palaces used to house the smartest political leaders, but that was thousands of years ago.
The world’s first female Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike had been continuing her husband’s ‘socialist’ and ‘nationalist’ policy since 1960. During her first period in power, Sri Lanka’s prime sectors like the banks, petroleum companies and insurance companies were nationalized. Even the schools owned by the Roman Catholic Church were nationalized in 1961 (Act No. 28 of 1961). Nationalizing the western-owned businesses angered the United States and United Kingdom. In their anger, the West had even terminated aids to Sri Lanka, which was known as Ceylon at the time.
The pro-Socialist government on the other hand also had a very friendly relationship with China. For instance, the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) constructed in 1973 was a gift from China to the friendly and pro-Socialist government of Ceylon. This matter was handled by none other than one of the founding fathers of new prosperous China, Zhou En Lai.
In addition to being a socialist, Sirimavo also ran politics on the back of the Sinhala Only Act (Official Language Act No. 33 of 1956), an anti-Tamil policy. This Act was implemented by her late husband and Prime Minister S.W.R.D Bandaranaike to collect political brownie points, while only about 25% of Sri Lankans were Tamils. This cheap, politically motivated Act easily became one of the perfect ‘themes’ for the foreign politicos to exploit a third-world majority’s weakness, and a third-world minority’s anger.
The other notable theme was Standardization in the university entrance process. Though this was not a Sinhala vs. Tamil dividing policy, it negatively affected the northern Tamils mostly since the Northern Tamils enjoyed some extra benefits. Per capita wise speaking, the colonial mater provided more schools in Tamils’ area, more government jobs to Tamils etc. North centric Tamil politicos used these issues for their political gains. They even, through their speeches, condoned violence against other Tamil politicians who were members of the National Party like SLFP (Sri Lanka Freedom Party). Later the cubs who had been nurtured by the north centric Tamil politicians turned against their mothers and killed most of them.
The above-stated political confrontations produced racial violence against Tamils later, primarily in 1977 and again in 1983, under the totally-failed leadership of Junius Richard (JR) Jayewardene.
Sirimavo’s second term ended in 1977 when her coalition won only 8 seats while her opponent, United National Party and American politico friend JR Jayewardene, got 140 of the 168 seats. The West was eager to help bring him to power. Contrary to Sirimavo, who had been aligned with the socialist East, JR had been working closely with capitalist America and the rest of the West. The TULF, a Tamil party from the North and the East, under the theme of independence, got 17 seats and became the official opposition party in the parliament.
Meanwhile, the Cold War continued everywhere in the world.
Still, the political conflict in Sri Lanka was mostly local with third world-level political violence. In the early stages, only Tamil members of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) were killed by TULF, a party of Tamil militants. One of the initial victims was Mayor of Jaffna and SLFP organizer Alfred Thuraiyappa, a Tamil, who was killed by LTTE (or TNT) on July 27, 1975. Another early victim was N. Nadaraja, a Tamil SLFP organizer, who was killed on July 2, 1978.
Ironically, even the early defenders of Sri Lanka who were killed were also Tamils, not Sinhalese. Kandaiah Karunanithy, a CID (Criminal Investigation Department) policeman attached to KKS police station, was killed February 14, 1977. Inspector of Police Bastiampillai, a Tamil, was killed on April 7, 1978 in Mannar.
The Sinhala Only Act, along with university entrance Standardization, pogroms against Tamils, and third-world political standards created a perfect political polarization in Sri Lanka; an American politico friendly government in the south, and exploitable political environment for the Indian politico in the north and east.
Though the semi-violent proxy-war had been brewing for years, only on 23 of July 1983 did the war become bloody. The LTTE ambushed and killed 13 of the Sinhalese speaking Sri Lankan soldiers while they were patrolling in the north. It was followed by a JR led UNP government moderated anti-Tamil riots that killed around 1000 Tamils.
An article published in the New York Times on November 1996, days after former President J.R.’s death, described the 1983 riots as “Gangs of thugs who, witnesses said, were led by members of the President’s United National Part, went on rampage against Tamils in Colombo, killing many and destroying their homes and businesses.”
The 1983 riot was soon branded and exploited by the Tamil politicos as Black July. But it’s fair to say it was not a riot against Tamils by the Sinhalese. It was government moderated riots against, in some cases, selected Tamils. In fact the number of Tamils who were protected by the Sinhalese was much higher than Tamil militants who were protected by fellow Tamils, while the LTTE was slaughtered on the streets of the north later. The Tamil politicos who almost celebrate Black July every year for their political gain don’t even mention the LTTE killings of fellow Tamil militant groups at all.
Then how can we call it a riot against Tamil by the Singhalese? It was a riot by the J.R.’s UNP government against ‘selected and unwanted’ Tamils for a political punishment. At the same time, UNP-friendly Tamils and Tamil businesses were protected at any cost. KG Industries, including a corrugated carton factory, plastic factory, cinemas and luxury bus services, was one of the worst affected victims of the anti-Tamil riots. But at the same time, Tamil owned businesses several folds bigger than KG got full protection. Did the common Sinhalese man decide to burn KG and to protect another?
Only in June of 2014, more than 30 years later, did UNP president Ranil Wickremsinghe say “There were shortcomings on the part of our United National Party government of 1983 as we did not take adequate action prevent Black July 1983”. It was a pathetic explanation for what happened in 1983.
But in any case, the stage in Sri Lanka was well set for a bloody, military scale proxy war.
Due to JR’s failed leadership, the 1983 riot made it easy for the Tamil armed groups to find new members in large scale, faster. In the first batch, well over 1000 well educated Tamil youths went to India for military training by India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). RAW took these youths, in five groups (EROS, EPRLF, LTTE, PLOTE, TELO), trained them with weapons and explosives, and fed them back to Sri Lanka to fight against Sinhalese dominated Sri Lankan forces.
In late 1960s, Front de Liberation du Quebec, Canada (FLQ) took arms and bombs to separate the province of Quebec from Canada. In October of 1970, the Deputy Premier and Minister of Labour of the province of Quebec was kidnapped and assassinated by the members of FLQ. Even that did not turn Canada into a bloody war. But if CIA or another external politico had taken about 1000 French youths, gave them military training, give them arms and let them to go back to Canada and kill Canadian forces, of course we could have seen a bloody ‘civil war’ in Canada in parallel to the one we had in Sri Lanka.
After seeing the 1983 riots had made his enemy stronger, JR made sure no new organized riots took place against Tamils. Even after the Anuradhapura Sri Maha Bodhi temple and bus station massacres by the LTTE, which killed about 150 Sinhalese on May 14th of 198, there were no riots against Tamils.
Meanwhile, in June of 1984, during a state visit to the White House, American President Ronald Regan received a baby elephant, a gift from President of Sri Lanka J. R. Jayewardene. He was so friendly to American politico, he was even bestowed the nickname “Yankee Dickie”.
The gift of an elephant was not the only gift to American politico from Jayewardene. The full list of gifts from JR was much bigger and bolder. The geographically important port of Trincomale, a natural harbor in Sri Lanka, was given to the US military. The Voice of America was allowed to build one of the most powerful transmitters in the village of Iranawila. The transmitter was 120 meters high and able to broadcast to half of the word.
Divisively polarized Sri Lanka was heavily militarized by Indian politico and the American politico. Even MOSSAD, under the title of Israeli Interest Section, was opened in June 1 of 1984 within the American Embassy in Colombo. That was 14 years after Sirimavo’s government closed the Israeli embassy in Sri Lanka and suspended all diplomatic relations with Israel.
The proxy war in Sri Lanka went too long, even the global geopolitics had flipped upside down during that period. First, India lost its grip on northern Tamils after LTTE killed all of the other Tamil groups. From the early days, LTTE’s number one enemy was India – excluding the state of Tamil Nadu (and the number two enemy was the fellow Tamils who disagreed, or had the potential to disagree, with them). Before the North came under LTTE’s control, the Northern Tamil media used to glorify India and loath America and the CIA. Once the North came under LTTE’s control, the glorification of India and loathing of America by the North disappeared without any explanation.
Second, the USSR died and thereafter the US and India became friends, at least for benefits. Once the war-creating proxies in Sri Lanka became friends themselves, the war in Sri Lanka lost its original track. Both Indian and the US politicos wanted Singhalese and Tamils to settle down. In parallel, even the Punjab militancy went down.
Third, China was on the march to become the next superpower. China was almost a non-existent entity when the proxy war in Sri Lanka started about 30 years ago. But directly or indirectly, China became one of the most important players in Sri Lanka when the war ended in 2009.
Whoever wants to understand the proxy war in Sri Lanka must first find the answer to this question: why did JR abandon the American politico and sign the Indo-Lanka Pease Accord with India in 1987? It is impossible to find evidence that JR was intimidated by India. Unlike today, America was a superpower politically, economically and militarily in 1987. And India was not. Did he lose trust in American and Israeli politicos and preferred to deal with his enemy directly?
The activities around India’s Operation Poomalai in Sri Lanka, which led to the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord, appeared to have been a drama, rather than a chain of real events. After LTTE lost Vadamarachchi to the Sri Lankan forces, a flotilla of 19 boats carrying supplies, and a boat carrying reporters, were sent to Northern Sri Lanka by the Indian government. The flotilla left from the Indian costal region of Rameshwaram. Rameshwaram was the wrong place to start with. Vadamarachchi is on the other side of the peninsula. Indian coastal of city Vedaranyam would have been a better starting point. The supply flotilla was confronted by the Sri Lankan forces in the Kachchativu area, and was forced to return without accomplishing its mission. That was on Wednesday July 3, 1987 in the evening. Theoretically rejecting of the flotilla caused India to execute Operation Poomalai.
But the aircrafts that were to be used for Operation Poomalai were already mobilized early on July 3rd, half a day before the flotilla mission failed. According to some reports, the five Mirage 2000 fighters used as escorts began heading towards Bangalore at 5:30 AM on that day. The political decision to fly Operation Poomalai should have been made even earlier, maybe even on July 2nd. So the Indian politico knew the flotilla mission would fail? Sure, some may argue Operation Poomalai was the Plan B. But it looked like Operation Poomalai was the Plan A and the flotilla of boats was a drama.
In any case, here are three lessons had played: First, after LTTE losing Vadamarchchi to Sri Lankan forces, Sri Lankan Tamils were given the lesson that LTTE is incapable of defending Tamils and India would be the safer protector. Second, Sinhalese were given the lesson that JR defended Sri Lanka’s integrity by returning the flotilla. Third, Tamils and Sinhalese were given the lesson that after all India is the ultimate power in that matter.
So, was JR part of this drama? Why didn’t the American politico rise up against Operation Poomalai? Did they know they had already lost their friend JR? Only in 1985, in an interview to BBC in 1985, JR said “…there are training camps in India, they (LTTE) have been trained in India, they are operating from India…”
In Conclusion – What’s a Civil War?
In his book titled By Way of Deception, the Canadian born former MOSSAD officer Victor Ostrovsky said that, at one time, MOSSAD was training Sri Lankan Sinhalese forces and the Tamil Tigers at the same time. He said MOSSAD was selling Devora boats to the government, and then training the Tigers in how to attack Devora boats. According to his book, at one time both groups were trained in the base of Kfar Sirkin. Some other Tamils got military training from PLO in the late 70s and early 80s. So it is very possible both the West and India had their proxies within Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups.
It is very hard to say who won anything out of this war. But the biggest losers are Tamils. Except for voting for TULF in the 1977 election, Tamils had no control over the matters. Since 1977, they were just jumping on the bandwagons; first to the TULF bandwagon, then to the India bandwagon and then the LTTE bandwagon. They said ‘YES” to matters only after they had happened: they never asked LTTE to kill all other groups, but said ‘yes’ only after LTTE killed all others, they never asked LTTE to kill former Indian PM Rajeev Gandhi, but said ‘yes’ only after LTTE killed him and so on.
Sinhalese also lost a lot if you consider the number of Sri Lankan forces dead, the number of people dead, the price their economy paid, and the lost opportunities to grow. JR or any other Sinhalese politico also might not have predicted the total price to pay when they used the minority issues for their cheap political gains.
So it is apparent that the war Sri Lanka was not a civil war, but just another dirty proxy war during the time of Cold War. Even if Sri Lanka was a 100% Sinhala or 100% Tamil nation, we could still have seen a bloody proxy war between the Northern Communist and Southern Capitalist.
There are at least two lessons one must learn from all of this. One, democracy is like a knife. The wise one will use it to provide and eat heartily; the unwise will use it simply to kill. Two, the people of the small nations should learn to make decisions independent of big powers and never take part in big powers’ game. Smaller nations are not financially, economically and intellectually rich enough to handle these games and the pain that comes in the end.