Are the west's morals self defeating?

[Husar]

Always interesting to hear the BBC on the Tamil tigers where you first get to hear government shelling of civilian areas and then some guy from the government who denies they are using artillery at all.

I don't really know much about the whole conflict but I guess both sides are full of it. Yeah I know, I'm just too much of a chicken to pick a side and cheer as they genocide the others but that's how I see it.

[Tribesman]

Are you forgetting that the reason the Tigers are the only representative of the tamils

Is it because it was Tamils who lost their vote , lost their right to equal education , lost their political representation and had their language banned ?

Their cause was just, their ways despicable.

Despicable yes , but no more despicable than the sri lankan government , one slight difference though , when the government made even non violent political campaigning illegal for the tamils it closed the door on anything but violence from the tamils whereas the Sinhalese use violence even though the constitution allows them to campaign peacefully . So really in that sense the government is far more despicable than the terrorists .

[HoreTore]

Is it because it was Tamils who lost their vote , lost their right to equal education , lost their political representation and had their language banned ?

No. The LTTE have consistently hunted down and killed every opposing Tamil faction. The Sri Lankan government made things hard as hell, but if LTTE hadn't gone about killing everyone, then there would've been other factions, although it's unlikely that any of them would've been as big as the tigers, of course.

Despicable yes , but no more despicable than the sri lankan government , one slight difference though , when the government made even non violent political campaigning illegal for the tamils it closed the door on anything but violence from the tamils whereas the Sinhalese use violence even though the constitution allows them to campaign peacefully . So really in that sense the government is far more despicable than the terrorists .

I never said I didn't want to see the Sri Lankan government whacked and replaced too....

[Incongruous]

No. The LTTE have consistently hunted down and killed every opposing Tamil faction. The Sri Lankan government made things hard as hell, but if LTTE hadn't gone about killing everyone, then there would've been other factions, although it's unlikely that any of them would've been as big as the tigers, of course.
I never said I didn't want to see the Sri Lankan government whacked and replaced too....

The LTTE is only around because the Sinhalese government destroyed Tamil society and culture, just as is the case of Hamas, I cannot blame them for what they are. The Sinhalese can blame themselves, luckily most Tamils (that I know at least) are very keen on peace. The International community should force the Sinhalese to accept the reality of Tamil self-rule, then the LTTE can be dealt with.

Sri-Lanka is a prime case of the "West's" lack of international moral policy, fine by me but I don't want to hear Westminster, Paris, Berlin or Washington calling one group terrorists and the other a "legitimate government". It's bollox.

[HoreTore]

The LTTE is only around because the Sinhalese government destroyed Tamil society and culture, just as is the case of Hamas, I cannot blame them for what they are. The Sinhalese can blame themselves, luckily most Tamils (that I know at least) are very keen on peace. The International community should force the Sinhalese to accept the reality of Tamil self-rule, then the LTTE can be dealt with.

I am in no way saying that the Sri Lankan government isn't to blame for LTTE, but it remains a fact that the LTTE hunted down and killed other tamils during their rise to prominence, like the entire leadership of TELO, for example.