War Games, Environmental pollution and lessons unlearned.
Posted on April 23rd, 2024
Kautiliya Pundit
The US has more than 750 military bases around the world and it may be time for the rest of the world to follow the example of the Niger Junta and call for an end to environmentally destructive military bases and war games, and declare the Indian Ocean a ‘Zone of Peace’.
As the US CARAT war games and US marines training of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), unfold off the strategic Trincomallee deep sea habour this week, some lessons from the Sahel region of Africa regarding foreign military training for coups and other operations to destabilize countries that have received such ‘military aid’ countries would certainly be appropriate for Sri Lanka, caught in a US Dollar Eurobond Debt trap and the IMF Bailout Business, all part of a hybrid economic proxy war and geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China in the Indian Ocean where Sri Lanka occupies a prime location.
The last time that the Malabar Exercises or War games took place in the Seas of Sri Lanka hundreds of Pilot Whales and some Dolphins beached and many died due to the sonar systems of the massive aircraft carriers and submarines disorienting the sea animals.
The last time that similar US War games happened off Trincomallee in 2020, Covid-19 spread through the SLN precipitating a second economically devastating Lockdown of the country in 2020.
U.S.-Sri Lankan military training had continued despite travel sanctions due to Coronavirus spreading during March and April 2020 at the Navy’s Special Boat Squadron Training School in Trincomalee Sri Lanka. [1] https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/us-sri-lankan-military-training-continues-despite-travel-sanctions
Meanwhile in an article titled: Time to End the COVID-19 Fear Psychosis & Militarized Curfews’ published at InDepthNews on 2020-05-04 Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake noted:
Theodore Roosevelt, militarization and Coronavirus in the Indian Ocean region
In the first week of May 2020 in Sri Lanka Covid-19 infections doubled just when the Rajapaksa regime was set to lift its 6 week-long militarized curfew, as there was a spike in cases, ironically, among some of armed custodians of the curfew – the Sri Lanka Navy and Army. Almost half of all infections in the strategically Indian Ocean island nation, 256 cases, were detected among sailors with several cases in the Army also reported at the end of April. About 4,000 navy troops are being quarantined inside the camp while 242 relatives have been taken to four quarantine centres run by the navy.
It appears that the Sri Lanka navy caught Covid-19 as part of a trend in the increasingly militarized Indian Ocean region: The U.S. Navy’s Aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt led the way with 900 plus Covid-19 cases on board in Guam, followed by France’s Charles de Gaulle Aircraft carrier. At this time Covid-19 has also spread to the Indian Navy camp in Mumbai and Sri Lanka’s Welisarra Navy camp and from there to many sailors and their families all over the country.
U.S.-Sri Lankan military training in Sri Lanka had continued despite travel sanctions due to Coronavirus spread globally, during March and April 2020 at the Navy’s Special Boat Squadron Training School in Trincomalee Sri Lanka.[1]
From spreading Covid-19 to Islamist terror, Sri Lanka has had its fair share of mysterious IS terror attacks as well.