Sunday, July 29

'Why no memorial for the IPKF in India?' (Two decades of Indo-Sri Lanka accord)

'Why no memorial for the IPKF in India?' (Two decades of Indo-Sri Lanka accord) - Yahoo! India News

Leaving aside the politics of the situation, the main reason behind why there is no memorial to the IPKF in India is because that was the first time that Indian forces were defeated very publicly. But some lessons were learnt from that disaster and the indian anti insurgency training and results in the North East, Kashmir and Punjab reflects that. I believe that that people forgot how to fight in tropical jungles, and this was after Malaya, Vietnam, Laos, and the other examples in Central America.

It is also important for UN Peacekeeping and Peace enforcement missions to know how easily it is to slip from peacekeeping missions to peace-enforcement. And because peace keeping operations are so lightly equipped as well as tied up in knots with very specific rules of engagement, they find it extraordinarily difficult to switch and frequently fall over. But this operation was the classic everything went wrong operation. I would say that the only saving grace is that the Indian forces withdrew with 1155 casualties, a very expensive mistake. But it still didn't learn the lessons and had to relearn the lessons in Kargil. Also see here for a good overview.

Update: 29/July/2007: A heart rending story follows of the Kargil war.

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