The Indian Peace Keeping Force’s (IPKF) operations is one of many tragedies in Sri Lanka’s history. A podcast by an ex US Navy SEAL examines it
- from a military history/counter insurgency perspective
- as meditation on the nature of discipline
The centre of the discussion is the book Assignment Jaffa by IPKF commander Lt Gen SC Sardeshpande. It makes for a fascinating listen.
The fuzzy consensus is that the IPKF intervention was a debacle. A classic case of a lumbering military power getting stung by things it could not perceive. I have heard it described as karmic retribution for India. For India’s meddling in Sri Lanka in general and support of the LTTE in particular.
The discussion in the podcast breaks down that debacle to the boots on the ground point of view. Yet the discussion is beyond a dissection of what happened. It’s a layered meditation on violence, military organisation, culture, and psychology. All within a frame work of “discipline”. Which is a loaded word in Sri Lankan culture and hard to summarise in a short blog post.
So it’s worth giving the podcast a listen.
Cerno 